SIEGE OF POWER's debut album "Warning Blast" - a release that centred on apocalyptic imagery and conjured allusions to the likes of CARNIVORE and S.O.D with a death metal backbone - was released no less than five years' ago. It was apparent that whilst some of the death metal elite feature in SIEGE OF POWER's line-up, the band's intention was never to produce a wholly OSDM focused record. In fact, it's fair to say that whilst muddy death metal may be the spine of SIEGE OF POWER, its vehemence and voracity stems from punk-infusions, thrash overtones and crust injections - even with the stark atmospheres of black metal making an appearance - something which absolutely brims in the latest instalment of the band's monolithic filth, "This is Tomorrow".

The sophomore effort is a bloodier and more brutal affair than its predecessor for these metallic heavy hitters, with an especially crushing experience unleashed from the off. Still harnessing life through a punk lens, SIEGE OF POWER singlehandedly manage to incorporate the punishing atmospheres of death metal, the unfettered tempos of thrash, and the rambunctious, surly attitude of crust into an elephantine release that turns life up to eleven in "This is Tomorrow". The prowess of the band is obvious, but it's Reifert's spectrum of sprawling vocal techniques, combined with the confidence of musicianship that comes from years of flexing its muscles, that attributes to the weight of the record's impassioned stark pessimism, bleak musings, and despairing observations which are carried with sonic certitude and audial conviction to ultimately transpire as an homage to gloom-ridden statements, apoplectic scrutiny, and fatalistic attitude.

Aptly, SIEGE OF POWER unleashed a teasing taste of its wrathful energy as a single in "Force Fed Fear", the opening track on the full-length that plunges you into the band's seething perspective in an overtly thrashier union. Feeling such remorseless enragement galvanises you for the swift blend into the equally as pulverising "Sinister Christians" with plenty of crust D-Beat overtones merged with incendiary thrash riffs and boisterous vocals, all reminiscent of CARNIVORE's "Angry Neurotic Catholics". It should be noted, however, that SIEGE OF POWER isn't an all-out crossover band, moreover the influence of the genre paws at you in amongst a mostly death meets thrash marriage, a combination that features across the forty-minutes of pure, unadulterated metallic pleasure "This is Tomorrow" bestows upon you.

Whilst simplistic in track structures, SIEGE OF POWER's no-frills approach works, and the uncomplicated output doesn't detract from ultimately producing a bruising opus. "Scavengers" demonstrates that combination perfectly with its plunging, groovy melodic style riffs and marching tempo that make for a cleaner listen. What's most striking about "This is Tomorrow" is the fearless exploration of soundscapes throughout; the contrast of switching from the outright brutal onslaught of "Zero Containment", set to levels of brawny OSDM pulverisation, to the stretched and deliberately elongated death doom narrative of "As the World Crumbles" engorged with its pensive crawling and crashing harshness - far more focused on its use of swollen guitars and Reifert's blackened doom misery than its OSDM brother - to create overwhelming despair and despondency.

The distinction of nuances pounds again in "Oblivion", a decidedly more death injected experience with a crust edge that vocally suffuses and extirpates upon the opening chord, whilst the black metal ambience of "Deeper Wounds" emanates BATHORY in a different level of 'quietude' displayed on "This is Tomorrow". The album certainly treads a gnarly path throughout and sails far from falter, the momentum gathering quickly when the DISCHARGE feeling fusion of "The Devil's Grasp" and "No Salvation" beckon with crusty D-Beat once more, but it's the dissonant doom of the PARADISE LOST feeling slab of the title-track "This is Tomorrow" that will reel you in with its heavy distortion, thick bass line, and low register gutturals and lead you to your own existential crisis as the bell of impending doom tolls.

SIEGE OF POWER champion originality and musical expression in spades with the enigmatic genre dynamism of "This is Tomorrow", executing a deluge of nuances with flagrant finesse and virulent virtuosity. You'd be nuts to miss out on this one.