A freshly disinterred geist rises up from the stones and roots of cemeterial earth, spreading terror across the sprawling metropolis before it… afflicting Hisingen, Sweden-based black/thrash metal trio TYRANNOSATAN with a unique form of possession in the spirit of mid-to-late 80’s sinister and bedeviled heavy metal. The band’s latest tape/EP ‘Babylons Skräck‘ is a succinct mutant-handed beast, a clawed and roaring slap of the ear from a thrash-minded creation of brilliant vintage. Whatever rotten magick wills their craft into form they’ve adapted it into energetic and brazen movement, fusion rather than rote function which is rooted in old vibrancies. While this still contributes to and exacerbates a certain indefinable quality sub-genre wise this quick shot of manic adrenaline will be received as compounding craft for ‘ready possessed fandom and curious onlookers alike thanks to the damaging level of attack behind the intuitive gnarl of their hands.

Tyrannosatan formed as trio circa 2016 featuring members/ex-members of thrash and metalpunk bands (Armory, Stormdeath, Razorvoid) who’d also featured in folk/black band Irrbloss at one point or another. Their goal has been stated simply enough as playing their own earnest vision of heavy metal. What this translates to the ear as the band hurl into motion is more inherently rooted in thrash metal’s lead-up toward a later 80’s extremist uprising, the greater zeitgeist of garage-level underground evil heavy metal, with some new-and-old black metal muscle memory attached. Though I don’t have access to the band’s first demo tape I probably would have freaked the fuck out over the band’s debut LP (‘Katakombernas Kakofoni‘, 2022) if I’d heard it upon release, only having discovered its erratic, sometimes fixated fusion a few weeks ago in the process of review.

The main thing to weigh in on per their first LP is a lawless approach to mid-to-late 80’s underground extreme (and traditional) heavy metal spiritus. Think of the era of post-‘To Mega Therion‘ thrash grooves and protolithic death metal that’d spawned Dream Death, Usurper (Chicago) and Slaughter (Canada) as possessed riff merchants and like Tyrannosatan you’ve covered a fair deal of oeuvre between thrashing, doomed, blackened and proto-death metal ideation. If we’re picking a single key sub-genre tag the vampire cape used in promotional photos spiritually places their work in the twilight days of first wave black metal, possessed speed/heavy metal in general (from Bulldozer to Carnivore etc.) but this is a restless trip which doesn’t lean in any one direction too loudly between four songs and ~18 minutes. They are all of these things but rarely all at once and not always as ‘old school’ as I’ve suggested here.

Beyond 2022 and the release of their debut Tyrannosatan‘ve cycled in drummer Pestgam (Inisans, Tyranex) and in some sense his experience in death and thrash metal has had some strong effect upon the expression of ‘Babylons Skräck‘ as we get some late 80/early 90’s inspired death metal from the band via opener “Vemhir” and the shouted, punkish crossover barked half-step of the title track (“Babylons Skräck”). This is generally the best side of the band and their greater mash-up as they’ve got a serious grasp on early days death metal per a strong Swedish bias that works for their whole sound. To me “Vemhir” sounds like earliest demo era Unleashed rolling through an early 80’s heavy metal piece with a sort of Insanity-type divebombed guitar strike as punctuation for their verses. Give me more this stuff in general.

Though it certainly isn’t the main even “Bland stenar och rötter” brings something different to the full spin, sounding more like a Scandinavian hardcore punk band inspired by the second Darkthrone album as they reach for a fast-rolling intro and an uglier scaling lead, a raw clash which is treated as a pre-build to the “chorus” of the piece. What sounds like flanged (?) bass jams out in the background of the second half of the song on the way to a melodic lead as an endpoint. I don’t know if this song feels like it was ready to fully leave the rehearsal space but a sense of abruptness, of hitting a song fast and putting it to tape, is all the more compelling as a point of interest on this EP as an intuitive thrash through forms. The main event on the second half is “Astronomicon” and where we get the early Celtic Frost riffs, a black/speed metal shriek or two, and something akin to slow motion Nifelheim otherwise. The pick-pressing and scraping lead guitar noise at the end is brilliant enough and the song is a sure highlight but even still I’m left admiring the death metal tinged side of the band most when all is said and done.

Per my own experience approaching this band without expectation or any concrete knowledge ‘Babylons Skräck‘ should prove a fine introduction for anyone who’d missed Tyrannosatan‘s debut a few years back, a quick slide through their ouevre under the current line-up and a showcase of all they’re capable of wheeling through in the span of bout twenty minutes. It’d make for a great set, rushing through a recording which feels right on the razor’s edge in stepping from the rehearsal space into the studio with pieces which are creative in their stretching of forms but not overwrought in their new-old take on proto-extreme metal. A moderately high recommendation.

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