REAPER hail from Melbourne and "Viridian Inferno" is their debut album released by Dying Victims Productions.

"Shadow of the Crucifix" opens the album with a solitary church bell over a wall of distortion before the raw chaos ensues and make no mistake, this is a very raw old school sound. It's really a combination of Speed/Thrash Metal, Punk and BLACK SABBATHy doom riffs thrown into a melting pot. The vocals are Black-Metalish and like most of this genre fairly unintelligible. I did manage to hunt down the lyrics for all the songs though which helped no end.

The lyrics actually are very well put together with "Taste The Blood", a song about cannibalism, being a particular favourite:

"Disorientation, jungle consumes
Claustrophobia, closing in on you

A gruesome display
Bones pave the way
Brought to the boil
The cauldron awaits"

"Drop Of The Blade" has a slower riff before speeding off with a screaming lead solo. Eventually it slows down with a doomy riff before speeding off again. I liked the chorus on this and again the lyrics were very good:

"The people have spoken it's an eye for an eye
The ultimate price you'll pay

Huddled in masses, in the city streets
Blood thirst on a summers day

A guillotine hangs high, for this sadistic show

Raped and tortured
Garrotte and bruised
Haunting sight burnt into the eyes of two
You take her corpse to the moor at night
There she'll lay, out of mind and out of sight
Now you're sentenced to die!"

I also enjoyed "Mass Grave" a song about the horrors of war:

"Engulfed in the torture
of a man made hell
Corpses fill the trenches
Black smoke and putrid smell

Flayed by fire
Scorched to the bone
Death from above
The dead lay below"

To be honest REAPER never stray off the path of doomy riffs, Speed/Thrash Metal and Punk so if that is your thing, then you should get some enjoyment from the album. The production is raw and the vocals I felt needed to be higher in the mix, so you have a better chance of hearing the lyrics. Also, the bass on the tracks is very scratchy and actually it detracted from my enjoyment of some of the songs. It does also get a little samey after a while with riffs you've heard a thousand times before, but the tracks tend to be around the 3-minute mark so none of the songs outstay their welcome.  The lyrics were definitely a strength of the album and at 30 minutes it's certainly not laborious to listen to. The drums and guitar were decent but none of the songs particularly stand out a being memorable.

As a debut album though, it's certainly a decent effort.