Various Artists
United in Annihilation

August 2008
Released: 2008, Ground Zero Entertainment
Rating: 3.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

There´s at least one common thing that unites Poland's Warfist, UK´s Acral Necrosis and Colombia's Witchtrap together. And what is that? They all play blackened underground thrash metal straight from their (blackened) hearts - sounding raw, unpolished, kinda primitive and yet they can surely raise quite a raging hellstorm with their furious and neck-breaking assaults.



The Polish Warfist sound the most primitive and unfortunately less interesting out of these 3 bands that have been featured for this 3-bands´ split CD. The band´s primitive feeling has been supported by a rehearsal standard production which doesn´t help much the songs to stand out a slightly better at all, I´m afraid. Their version done for Impaled Nazarene´s "1999: Karmageddon Warriors" doesn´t make me going to a graveyard to desecrate graves and crush tombstones either. (2 out of 5)



Acral Necrosis from England, however, impress the hell out of me again. The band´s shredding, vicious blackened thrash spreads around as easily as the bubonic plague did during the 1300s in Europe. The type of pure wickedness the band has is deeply rooted in their sound, and can be sensed amazingly well out from their songs - and with the 4 songs that they have recorded for this split-CD, their carbon-black souls are meant to bleed more black blood in front of the altar of the crucified whore Jesus Christ. Think of sort of a hybrid of such satanic commandos as Fallen Christ and Blasphemy, that both have taken more of a thrashy roller coaster ride musically, and you pretty much have Acral Necrosis in your slit hands. Now welcome true holders of satanic blitzkrieg underground metal to your home. (3.5 out of 5)



The Colombian old school black-thrashers Witchtrap have always churned their early Kreator/Destruction tinged, menacing thrash out with style. This time they have re-recorded some of their old songs for this release; "Black Leather Metal Damnation" can originally be found on their NO ANESTHESIA album (on Dirty Sound Records, released in 2006) - just like a song called "Metal Army March". The other two old songs, "Black Like the Night" and "Witchtrap" have been taken from the band´s WITCHING METAL E.P. that they recorded 8 years ago. All of these 4 re-recorded versions do enough justice to their original versions even if the sound is now clearer than on the original releases (which shouldn´t come as a surprise though, I think). The band´s vocalist, nicknamed ´Burning Axe Ripper", sounds exactly like Kreator´s Mille in his twenties. Also, Witchtrap´s version of their fellow countrymates´ Masacre´s song, "Imperio del Terror", sounds like the perfect choice of cover. Is there any better way to pay tribute to one of the most legendary underground metal bands of the Colombian scene than covering Masacre´s "Imperio del Terror" song, which happens to be the demo title of the band´s self-released 1989 demo, too. (3.5 out of 5)



Whether this 3-bands´ split CD is a mandatory purchase or not, I guess everyone can make his/her own decision about that. However, as UNITED IN ANNIHILATION features unreleased material from such killer underground blackened thrash acts as Acral Necrosis and Witchtrap, for the diggers of those bands it´s relatively easy to say ´yes - and thank you´, I believe.