Label - Redefining Darkness
Release Date - 9th June 2023
Words - Tony Bliss
Plugging away in the UK underground for well over a decade now, London’s The Bleeding have been widely hailed by those in the know as one of our fair isles brightest hopes. Indeed, whether they are a name you are familiar with or not, anyone with even a faint interest in face-ripping extreme music needs to have Monokrator gleefully and vigorously thrust into their lug ‘oles post haste - this is as devastating and powerful as thrash metal gets in 2023.
At a nicely economical thirty minutes in length, these eight tracks are a lesson in violence, delivered with the succinctness and maximized, bloody impact of four dudes hooked on adrenaline and with riffs to spare. And so, whilst the likes of opener ‘Chemical Lobotomy’ boots off like Carcass jamming on Slayer tunes and ‘Chainsaw Deathcult’ repeats the trick with a side of Deathhammer-era Aspyhx ushered in for good measure, it’s certainly true to say that the blistering tempos and venom-frothing snarl here keeps us firmly in thrash territory, however, the death metal quotient is always just shy of tipping into the red on Monokrator - perhaps the key ingredient as to why The Bleeding just go faster and nastier than many of their peers.
Fear not though, these songs are built for more than just wrenching off your limbs at break-neck speed - well, not ALL of them anyway. ‘Screams Of Torment’ is a deceptively catchy little number which devolves into a grim, chug-heavy stomp-fest (check out that nifty lead-break towards the end too), and ‘On Wings Of Tribulation’ has a haughty air of black metal supremacy about it, all pitiless blasting and snow-capped riffs - some piercing, clean falsetto wails provide the cherry on top of the heavy metal cake. Nods toward creative wing-stretching aside, Monokrator is primarily an ultra-precise, uber-intense thrash record, and all ludicrously exciting and brimming with vitriolic intent. Thrash ‘til death.
8.5/10
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