It came to me that mythology and ancient Roman eposes have never were that violent and destructive in the way as those were displayed through the terror that is the militant SPEARHEAD from the UK. Although those olden stories and related events of that era correlated quite well with murderous deeds and plenty of violence, it only took an old school Extreme Metal band to promote the brutality and bloodshed that would have probably made the Romans to shiver in fear. The band's third album via Agonia Records, "Theomachia", which dealt once again with the Roman heritage, showed that the British still have some nice going moments to show off with in Extreme Metal.

"Theomachia"can be described in a single horrific sentence, "Surrender or die by the sword". Acceptance of what this band has rallied up in this release, and their entire career probably, is crucial in order to stay among the living. Not that you will lose your life for this yet it is a fine enticer to look fiercer and brutal. Just as the band has been showing through their past ventures, the mixture between old school extremities, Death and Black Metal, was quite evident and lived up to my expectations. Signs of old eras of MORBID ANGEL, MARDUK, BOLT THROWER and BELPHEGOR seemed to be attached to this band's direction and that was notable.

Nevertheless, I think that SPEARHEAD lost points in my book mainly because of their repetitive sense in their riffages, especially when those were played under the deadly embrace of their utterly speedy blast beat moments of pure evil grinding. Those crude sections, in overall, helped to create a sort of a warzone experience. SPEARHEAD is out for blood and out for violence with no mercy in their eyes therefore I assumed that was the main reason why they came to play immensely faster most of the time. I can warmly recommend "Pray To The Conqueror", "Autocrator" and "Kshatriya" as those were both violent, rather diverse and kept that wonderful vibe of that ancient Roman theme.

However, even with their success on more or less reaching that great feel of an epos, I couldn't shake it that almost every single track had almost the same fast riffed grinding sections with almost the same similar chords. Apparently, that shortcoming didn't interfere with the guitarists' efforts on dissecting with jagged solos, kind of SLAYER like oriented that sometimes felt like taking a spear right to the face. In the end, "Theomachia" turned out to be a little more than a solid violent Extreme Metal combustion with an epical theme.

I have to be honest with you; I didn't entirely connect with the band's entire tracklist. Although they showed that there is promise with additional tracks as "To Slake the Thirst of Ages" and "Herald the Lightning", I felt that some of the songs were too similar to one another as it was hard to distinguish between them. Nonetheless, SPEARHEAD has been crossing swords and spears for almost nine years and I do believe that they would create a lot more powerful stuff in their next endeavor.