SLAVOCRACY is a death metal project from Western Slovenia. This release in particular, is their debut album. Originally recorded between 2012 and 2013, it wasn't until January 2020 that it was mixed and mastered, to later be picked up by On Parole Productions for release. So, the first thing you have to keep in mind is that this 2021 release is actually a 2013 album, so you have to try to travel 8 years back into sound and metal evolution to fully understand and perhaps, accurately rate this album.

After listening to the instrumental opening "Catch 22" I could still not decipher the true sound of the band, some riffs sounded Heavy/Power inspired, while most remained somehow on the Melodic DM side, vocals where absent so still more to explore... "Jaws of War" brings the bombs to your door. Thrash riffing and pounding drums strike you with violence along with an opening scream, as the song quickly goes through some fast soloing, vocals reveal their sound, and it is quite fitting to the fast pace to melodic mix the band performs, as they range from growled to high pitched, to doubled, aggressive at all times, nice first, true impression.

As I bite another chunk of this rotting corpse, I get as taste of Grindcore in the mix, "Resurrect Wisdom" and "Deathmarch" bleed black with a well-balanced dose of aggression and technicality. Another interesting song is "Seven", which happens to be the 7^th song on the album, and I said interesting because it shows some other elements that separate them from the rest, the pace slows down, and there are more melodic breaks and perhaps even some groove elements. "Bite the Bullet" has a lot of doubled vocals that make it sound a bit more into the Blackened Death Metal side, while "Promises" follows the same line but ends in acoustics.

There may be many references I could probably mention when it comes to the sound of SLAVOCRACY. I had a lot of flashbacks to the sound of early MALEVOLENT CREATION on the riff side, TERRORIZER and late NAPALM DEATH on the vocal side at times, but their own style flows with the melodies. I would definitely like to listen to their new music, because this is still a cool album to bang your head to, powerful and aggressive, just like it should.