Featuring guitarist John McEntee of INCANTATION and my favorite drummer of all time Flo Mounier of CRYPTOPSY, TRIBE OF PAZUZU is a force to be reckoned with. Earlier in February, they released their debut EP, "Heretical Uprising".

This EP of less than 15 minutes is packed with blackened delight. It has riffs upon riffs and it never seems to relent. The EP starts with a chanting "Heretical Uprising", something that sounds sort of lame, but holds a special place in my heart as I used to write a lot of music similar to this.

After the chanting ends, the listener is placed under a barrage of blackened riffs, all of which are fairly unoriginal, but are also well-executed. I have been finding recently that bands might not have riffs that are very original, but if they play them well and compose the song in a smooth way, then it works. That's exactly what's going on here.

"Divinity Destroyed" is one of these songs. It goes on with great, heavy flow until it goes into a dissonant breakdown with a frenzied solo, courtesy of Randy Harris. It gives the song a whole new layer and a lot more depth. McEntee and Harris do a great job with the blackened sound and their riffs and solos work very well together.

As for the drums, I was excited to see that Mounier was a part of this EP, but his brutal playing doesn't make much of an appearance on this record. His signature fills are all there, and they're all blisteringly fast, but he plays normally for the most part. There is also a lot of groove on this album thanks to the chemistry between the guitars and drums. On "Poisonous Faiths" and "Indoctrinated into Enslavement" this groove is very present.

This EP is great, but I don't see myself listening to an entire album of this. It's a good sound for 15 minutes of material, but the music needs a little more of what was on the end of "Divinity Destroyed". More dissonant breakdowns, chants and interesting interludes would be very welcome.

This EP is reminiscent of early KETZER. Remember that German Blackened Thrash Metal band that released one of the genre's greatest albums in 2009 before becoming total garbage in 2016? Although Thrash Metal is not something commonly found on TRIBE OF PAZUZU's debut, it has that ring to it. It's a very fun listen, and hopefully they can refine their sound by the time of the full-length.