Founded in Sweden in 2010, the Stockholm based BESTIALITY, lay claim to a genre that is an unholy mix of Death, Thrash and Black Metal music. How I wish they had chosen a different name! I found two other bands with the exact name based out of Poland and Germany. Granted, English is not their first language, but come on guys! So this Swedish band plies their brand of extreme music n the vein of classic bands such as BATHORY, HELLHAMMER, SARCOFAGO and TORMENTOR. This is another case of a band jumping on the Old School bandwagon. Another oddity that I found about this band is that they have no apparent lead vocalist. The previous vocalist, M. Molester left the band in 2015 and they have Self Desecrator filling in for the vocals and is credited as a guest musician. The band released a demo in 2013 called "Ancient Bell Chimes" and followed that up by a split album called "Evil Spells, Volume 1" in 2015. A live album and another demo followed in the years 2015 and 2016. This would make this album their debut album!

Talking about the album itself, the runtime of this ferocious album is just under 35 minutes, which reinforces the classical Black Metal approach that band takes. The opening song called "The Mist of Mayhem" begins rather sedately and ominously. After more than a minute of what seemed to me like a horror movie soundtrack, the Black/Thrash Metal attack begins. An entirely instrumental track, it is a befitting opening song. "Witchblood", the second track is when we hear the demonic vocalist for the first time. While the first part of the song falls clearly in the Black Metal genre, the midsection is an intense Thrash Metal interruption.  The song ends pretty much the way it began, demonic rasping over frenzied guitar playing. "Hill of Crucifixion" is a one-minute instrumental track that just serves as filler to the album and really doesn't do much to the dynamics of the record. The album ends with "Shadowside Path", an intense track of less than five minutes. The track is a fitting end to an overall pretty good album.

While the album boasts of some really good riffs, I have an issue with the production value of the record. The band has obviously been influenced by Old School Metal and it shows in their song structure. However, the use of production from that era put me off. It seemed to me that the album was recorded in somebody's basement on a cell phone. The record industry has made tremendous advancement in recording devices and I cannot fathom why the band chose this route. Could it be that the band wanted to retain an Old School sound? There are also parts of songs that do not sound in tempo. I found that to be very worrying. Ignoring these blips, the band has been together a while and have managed to put out a half-decent debut full-length studio album. It has some electrifying lead guitar work and the vocals are rather enjoyable. I just wish it was produced better.