If speaking truth to power is considered controversial in your world you’ve accepted treatment no different than the crowded, sickly and panic-stricken livestock you eat. The corporation dealt bolt-gun is aiming for your skull, too, as their impunity rises under mass political corruption. All manner of well-known fiends are hounding down liberties by the day and above all else it seems Oslo, Norway-based death metal/hardcore punk trio GALGEBERG are fuming most heartily with frustration for complicity, apathy from the unthinking masses under the spell of social engineering as they present their debut full-length album. On the short but all-killer spread of ‘Cerberus‘ this triskelion of thrashers’ve positioned themselves under command of an enormous yet familiar sound and managed to spark some palpable inspiration from it. The chunk of songs resultant manifest nostalgia for ‘old school’ Scandinavian death metal as much as they showcase the bands own ingenuity of forms and punkish conviction.

Galgeberg formed circa 2022 and certainly not by chance as vocalist/guitarist Peter Vegem (Hellride), bassist Bosse and drummer Bård Eithun (Djevel, ex-Thorns, et al.) all go way back decades in the past with their association, the main tie between them being thrash metal band Blood Tsunami. Folks with this many thrash metal gigs under their belt are my kind of people by default, there is no better foundation, but for this formation you’ll unquestionably feel a late 80’s Nihilist-era Scandinavian death metal buzz as they’ve focused on ‘old school’ Scandinavian death metal style translated through its most primal energies, specifically hardcore punk/crust leveled stuff. Fans of (early) Trap Them, Bombs of Hades or Black Breath should appreciate this type of application of hardcore punk and d-beat to a monstrous Boss HM-2 pedal clogged rhythm guitar tone, yet the trio’s ventures do not solely reach for metalpunk and instead begin echoing the rupture of early Swedish death metal classics.

This particular render of an amped up HM-2 sound, which I generally associate with Swedish metal and metalpunk music, is impressive in its “minimalist” clarity as it competes with a full-surround drum presence and a growling bass guitar tone (see: “. The whole thing boils in its sound as Galgeberg‘s nuclear wall of guitar distortion steamrolls across the entire face of this record but their primal (but not primitive) songcraft is the main reason to jump on this ~22 minute record. There is a knack for this sound found on ‘Cerberus‘ which makes full use of its instrument, it is a rare thing to find a new band doing anything imaginative or entertaining via this level of Boss-built thunder and in this case their weapon is wielded in an inventive stroke of punkish death metal (n’ roll) with a bluntly spoken intelligence behind its carve.

Each song on ‘Cerberus‘ finds its own subject and rhythmic nerve managing easy differentiation without any wildly outside-the-box arrangement beyond the impressive directness of their attack, a confident mastery of the Stockholm sound under simplest directive. To be fair the molecules they’re rearranging here are relatively foolproof and this is especially true as we begin staring squarely in the face-chewing bark of death metal applied per the roar of their chainsaw as the Dismember-esque whorl of opener “Epicurean Paradox” finds its momentum. I wouldn’t say the lyrics struck me before the riffs, the rhythms here are especially fine right out the gates as the first three (of six total) songs approach fast, though I will say overall it is rare to find a death metal band with anything topical to say. Conviction especially counts on my favorite piece of the lot “Unparalleled Suffering” a melter of a song where the hardcore punk side of the band rears its skull and the bark from Vegem is at its most brutal when decrying the cruelty of the mass meat industry and factory farming practices. The step from the semi-melodic wiles of the opener through the chest-punching haul of “Unparallel Suffering” was undeniably enjoyable on my part and together those pieces remain the core highlight of the album for my own taste.

Side A finishes with a more direct UK82 bully with “Ode to O’Connor”, a tribute to the anti-institutional legacy of Sinéad O’Connor, before Side B shifts gears toward death n’ roll era sounds (“Prelude to Genocide”) and more speed-Motörpunk digs (“Kleptocrat Infestation”) on the pass-thru. For an album that was purportedly recorded in a roughly sixteen hour span, produced by the band and engineer Ruben Willem @ Amber Studio who also did the mix and master, ‘Cerberus‘ remarkably avoids the thoughtless mundanity these sub-genre cloistered parameters typically generate. Of the more punk leaning tirade of the album’s second half “Kleptocrat Infestation” is an obvious standout, sounding like a Motörhead cover as it grinds through.

While it’d be fair to suggest a shorter album in such a well-trod niche space/sound will face diminishing returns I’d found most all of ‘Cerberus‘ memorable enough that I will keep an ear out for Galgeberg in the future. This is an especially fine showing for a debut as it offers a succinct showcase of their voice, leads with believable conviction, and overall the amount of variety they bring to such familiar sounds is inspired. For my own taste the heavier they lean into death metal directed pieces the better the result but all-in-all showing a broader range bodes well for their future potential in any case. A moderately high recommendation.

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