Tsar Bomb
Neowarfare

November 2012
Released: 2012, badGod Music
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewer: Metal-Rules.com UK Team

The island of Malaga may not seem a natural haven for a black metal revolution, but that is a situation which this Spanish trio have been staying out of the sunlight and locked in the darkness to try and change, with the result being this debut album (the follow-up to an EP of the same name earlier this year).



Obviously fascinated by the end of the world, and especially its destruction by the forces man is capable of unleashing upon both himself and the product, Tsar Bomb’s declaration of ‘Neowarfare’ is suitably apocalyptic in its feel and delivery – but it’s also fairly standard blackened death metal fare.



The main fault, for me personally, is that the drums are programmed and therefore immediately lend an antiseptic feel to that aspect of the album’s delivery. On the plus side, however, Ocram’s vocals are very impressive and the songs are, by and large, fairly well-structured.



Highlights for me are ‘Victorious Death’ and ‘Nuclear Feast’, with its brooding, annihilistic interludes, while the title track is as good a piece of anthemic DM as you’re likely to hear at the moment.



Review by Mark Ashby