Accepting names as LOUDNESS, SIGH, and ANTHEM, it's extremely rare to deal with Metal acts from Japan. It seems that their scene is closed on itself, that the bands aren't interested in reaching recognition (and even commercial success). But don't have the wrong idea: a fact from the 80s that seems to be a truth today is that every single day there's a great Metal show on Japan, and it's not so hard to understand why a veteran as TRANSGERSSOR is still active after all these years, releasing new material. And this time, here is "Beyond Oblivion", their latest release. The band started its activities on 1989, and they're a Death Metal act that has resemblances with acts as AUTOPSY, DEATH, MASSACRE and others.

In other words: it's a putrid and aggressive form of Old School Death Metal that still shows influences from Thrash Metal, and that has its charm and speaks loud for the fans. But of course, as they're in this way for a long time, they evolved in some ways, as in the used of bleak melodic touches (that can be heard clearly on the guitars arrangements on "Death Heaven" and "Stuck in Limbo"), but the whole result sounds brutal and oppressive. And it's really good! As things didn't change for them after all these years (in terms of musical ideas), "Beyond Oblivion" shows a sonority that's raw and nasty, something with resemblances with Grindcore and older Death Metal records of the 80s. But the final result is something that can be understood without problems, so the sonority fits on what they want to express with their songs.

A noisy and distorted guitar solo introduces the brutal and bone eroding "Death Heaven", a song based on aggressive and nasty guitar riffs and arrangements (but with some melodic touches, as described above), with some fast rhythms in the vein of the old days of the genre. And some Grindcore blast beats introduces "Stuck in Limbo", that soon becomes heavy and slow, with bitter ambiences and a solid work on bass guitar and drums, and "Infiltration" follows the same tendency, with simple technical approach and crude distorted guitars. "For Nothing" sounds as an experimental song, with acoustic guitars contrasting with distorted noises of electric guitars. And "Vision of Carcass" brings some classic faster tempos inherited from Old School Death Metal, as the Hardcore hooking traces and a nasty set of guttural tunes on the vocals.

"Beyond Oblivion" depicts as a veteran can hold ground on its own identity, but can learn some new traits. And TRANSGRESSOR keeps being relevant in the extreme scene, indeed.