In their nihilistic, violent crusade against all religious dogma our protagonists couldn’t be sated by the global immolation of all believers, the true virus would not be cleansed forever. Anything less than complete and thorough eradication of all life wouldn’t be enough, a half-measure in the minds of their extreme hand. Instead Barcelona, Spain-based black metal quartet Barbarian Swords fantasize and thrill the cult with hymns intent on scouring the planet of all life, becoming the nuclear storm they want to see in the end. ‘Anti-Dogma Megaforce‘ vandalizes all idols, slits every last throat, and nukes the piss-filled grave of humanity for good measure as their fourth and most rabid attack unleashes its masterful combination of evil-thrashing precision applied to bestial black and war-torn extremes.

Barbarian Swords formed back in 2011 working their gig up to a quartet playing a style which they’ve long called true nihilist black doom metal or “extremely blackened funeral doom metal” in the case of their first demo (‘Crusaders of the Apocalypse‘, 2012) a crossing of slow doom metal riffs, screaming guitar noise, and wilding-ass vocals all of which’d sounded as if it were pulled from a rehearsal room at the time. They recently juiced up the demo for a reissue which cleans up the sound if you aren’t wild about the sound of the original. If you are a fan of big, ugly extreme doom metal coming from the deepest underground the early discography from these folks does well to incorporate early Hellhammer‘d black metal into the sludgier hellscape of their first demo, this turns out particularly well on their debut LP (‘Hunting Rats‘, 2013) but explodes into a fleshier, over the top double LP for their second album (‘Worms‘, 2016). This side of the band is important to know for the sake of contrast with what ‘Anti-Dogma Megaforce‘ is doing but it only walks us in the right direction one-tenth of the time.

Though there were thrashing bestial black metal attacks included in most of Barbarian Swords‘ early phase, you’ll find the best precedence on the second album, it was ‘Totemic Anal Turbofucker‘ (2019) that introduced the full-on war metal/bestial black metal side of the group in full. If you consider the legacy of Impaled Nazarene and Sadistik Exekution and the cacophonic punkish qualities of Abhorer that is kind of where they were headed with the last album in general and more-or-less what we get here with album number four, the kill switch flipped on a half hour lead strangling riff attack which is far more murderous and ‘old school’ in feeling than the previous record. Hit the first two songs on the album (“Massive Prehistoric Killing Machine” b/w “Lord Winter”) and you’ll get the big step up occurring here in terms of attack and precision. The band suggest this focus on tightening up their cut, incorporating more keys, and loading up the riffs to a machine-gunned clip comes from bassist Panzer‘s general lead in the songwriting department. We see all of these elements counted on their own as the album blazes past and eventually combined as the album takes on even more cold character in their advance through the tracklist, ending on a 90’s black metal note for its closer (“A Thousand Impaled Heads”).

‘Anti-Dogma Megaforce‘ is one part of an overflow event in the studio as Barbarian Swords went in to work with Javi Félez at Moontower Studios and came out of the experience with two separate albums in hand, this being the first and decidedly violent result. The point to make here is that these folks are feeling the magick of their own creations here and this not only intensifies the curiosity for their fifth album (whenever it is readied) but imbues this record with a certain level of enthusiasm which leads to fast-thrashing and excessive violence throughout as a tirade against dogma/religion well worthy of the Chris Moyen piece which graces its cover.

The first third of the album is fittingly most compelling for my taste (“Killer of All Hope” is my favorite) as the fastest, hardest-edged chunk of the attack but this record kinda comes in waves of three pieces along its nine songs and each section has its own rabid point of focus which leaves the album feeling varied but masterful in its no-bullshit stretch. The middle of the album is where the mania hits its most fevered strike of thrashing black metal between the jogging and bursting Kreator-esque (or, earlier Destroyer 666) ride of “Immoral Ritualistic Abomination” with its struck hard rhythmic damage and ranting guitar runs that spark up for emphasis throughout and “Nuke Barcelona” with its late 80’s black metal grooves. Those two pieces relate particularly well and blaze through only hitting riffs that count and in the process have this classic feeling to their scraping irreligious dementia.

The last three pieces on ‘Anti-Dogma Megaforce‘ give us the demented symphonic war metal (“Glorious Deicide”) the Beherit-feeling scramble and slap (“Anti-Dogma Megaforce”) and a grand finale fit for the mid-to-late 90’s (“A Thousand Impaled Heads”) which incorporating keyboards/synth into each piece on some level, tying them together while showing something different with each song. Vocalist Von Päx is arguably most on fire on these songs but sticks with a maniac rasp-and-spit for the majority of the album beyond some Petrozza-edged enunciation on the opener. Front to back the aggression of this album leaves its first read as dense but easily parsed after a few listens. The sound is cacophonic due to its damned speed but always readable, focused on attacking the listener with its riffs first and foremost to the point that a certain late 80’s/early 90’s energy permeates its rush. I’d gotten a kick out of it and found it to be more than pure adrenaline when taking a closer look at each piece. A moderately high recommendation.

---