Most extreme metal bands would be happier just reverting to speed metal, since that lets them mix in Cirith Ungol or Atheist riffs without breaking the integrity and continuity of the work, and Black Mass acknowledge this by unabashedly crafting speed metal that borrows freely from other subgenres and genres by translating those ideas into speed metal orthodoxy.

With more in common with recent Darkthrone releases than death metal or what most of the retro-drugged speed metal out there has been doing lately, this band aims for simple two step songs: first it wants to create a loop with its own kind of anti-groove that propels it forward, and then it wants to bring it to a certain point.

Black Mass succeeds in using dynamic contrast and textural variation toward this end, since these riffs are not only classic heavy metal, death metal, speed metal, progressive, and rock tropes, but they have been bent and molded into the unique language of this genre. It results in a satisfying listen that aims to do a top-notch job of the dead-middle, instead of a dead-middle job of the avantgarde or nostalgic.

Tags: black mass, Speed Metal