The greatest peaks in the long-running career of ex-Bestial Warlust guitarist K.K. Warslut‘s Deströyer 666 have been the black/thrash classic debut ‘Unchain the Wolves’ and their energetic 2016 album ‘Wildfire’. If ‘Wildfire’ felt like a rousing tribute to classic thrash and speed metal then ‘Call of the Wild’ should hold equal appeal as anthemic and ‘old school’ as it is. With the same line-up and recording the only major change here is a minor stylistic shift towards pure thrash metal heroics. Their approach has grown more direct with each release beyond the gap after ‘Defiance’ and tracks like “Stone by Stone” and “Violence is Golden” almost start to read like Skyclad‘s ‘The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth’ in both lyric themes and thrash riffing.

Without a great deal of blackened speed metal permeating ‘Call of the Wild’ in favor of muscular paganistic thrash a la Bifrost, it was brilliant to include a re-recording of “Trialed by Fire” a fittingly Bathory-esque track for this EP’s style that was originally featured on their 2003 ‘Terror Abraxas’ EP.  I like the direction Deströyer 666 are headed in even if it means a sharper reduction in black metal elements as they have a real knack for memorable thrash metal tracks. Easily one of my favorite short plays of 2018 and a promising set of thrashers that smartly build upon the successes of ‘Wildfire’.

Shoulder to shoulder. 4.0/5.0

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