In the 80s, due the massive strength of SLAYER on the age between “Haunting the Chapel” and “Reign in Blood”, and of KREATOR with “Endless Pain” and “Pleasure to Kill”, the conception of a mix between Thrash Metal and Death Metal was born, aligning the speed and technical appeal of the first genre with the brutality of the second. Obviously a new whole genre was born of it, and things evolved more and more since then, creating paths that can be different from the usual. And one band that shows a personal work in such trench is the Danish quintet SHADOWSPAWN, as shown on their third album, “Blasphemica - Absolution Carved from Flesh”. The quintet uses the Death/Thrash Metal mix in a way that aligns a refined (and even melodic) work on the instrumental parts (pay attention to the riffs and arrangements of the guitars on “Desert Serpent” to have an idea of what these words mean), evading to overload the brutality aspect of their music.

The Thrash Metal side of their music sounds like an inheritance of Swedish Thrash Metal acts as THE HAUNTED on its early days (due the precious melodic side mixed with a refreshed aggressiveness). It’s brutal and oppressive in the same way, and thus, they created a personal way into Death/Thrash Metal ways. The fingerprints on the sonority shows no secret: Tue Madsen worked on the mixing and mastering, putting things in their due places and boosting the aggressiveness, but always in a clean and defined way. It has that aggressive impact that the fans demands, but in a way that anyone can understand what’s being played by the quintet.

“Blasphemica - Absolution Carved from Flesh” (let’s call it only “Blasphemica” from now on, please) is a brutal and well-worked torpedo to the ears, being hard to choose one or another songs as the right ones to know the album. But “Bonesong” (with its massive and hooking tempos guided by a very good work on bass guitar and drums), “Blasphemica” (filled with disturbing and excellent guitars riffs and arrangements, and what aggressive impact in the ears and some groovy moments during the chorus), “Desert Serpent” (where the band’s refined instrumental work is evident, laying the perfect sheath for the grunts and snarls of the vocals), “Lacerations” (again some melodic arrangements can be heard, along some technical parts), “Vanity of the Wicked” (some hooking parts with Thrash Metal-like riffs are clear), “Absolution in Flesh” (wow, what very good and greasy hooks), and “Thrive in Sadness” can be defined as a set to begin with.

SHADOWSPAWN is really a very good surprise from the Danish scene, and “Blasphemica” came to state their name into the scene of the genre in the word. It’s just a matter of listening to it and becoming seduced.