In theory, Black Metal does not lend itself well, at least not publicly, to comedy and parody. When many people think of Black Metal, they imagine some stoic, serious, shrouded figure glaring down a camera with a disapproving grimace. In a genre that's famous for being misanthropic and po-faced, it's hard to believe that there's any room for laughs and gags. Having said that, it's hard not to find some of it hilarious, and even use its key themes and tropes light-heartedly, whilst still giving us some great music. STERBHAUS are one such band whose Blackened Thrash attack is as sick as their lyrics are funny. Their newest record, "New Level of Malevolence", is a full throttle statement of intent that will have Extreme Thrash fans the world over frothing at the mouth in awe of some amazing music.

Opener "Grudgeholder- Hatemonger" is a scatter-brained, chaotic way to start this album off. It's very fast, very technical and has a hint of Black Metal underneath the insane riffs. Vocally, it's reminiscent of Extreme Thrash bands like KREATOR, a vocal style that is very difficult to pull off, but is done expertly and sits well with the music. "El Giftus Satanas" reduces the speed to a much more modest, mid-paced affair, and the music that accompanies the sharp, rasping vocals is very much rooted in Thrash, although the Black Metal influences are clearly peppered liberally into the mix. It's got technical trills, crushing chugs and demonic drumming aplenty, and it's clear that although this band approaches comedy in their lyrics, constructing great music to them is no laughing matter. The albums main single, "Necrostabbing the Corpsefinder" leaps out of the speakers with a ferocious flare after an short, introductory sound bite that sets the tone quite well. It's an extremely powerful, attention grabbing song with plenty of great hooks, both vocally and on guitar. This is most likely going to become one of the bands most popular songs in years to come. "Bloodbarf", the albums fourth track, slowly builds with an eerie intro into a very good Blackened Metal track, completed with some nice, Thrashy flourishes. The lead guitar parts on here in particular are really on point, and really make the track. Next up is "Crossed and Pissed and Devoured", another great Thrash song with a harsh, Blackened edge to it. It's up there as one of the albums best tracks.  Then we come to the albums title track, a very catchy, progressive Thrash Metal song that changes pace and style rapid and smoothly. It's easily the most accessible, and dare I say, "mainstream" track on the album, and could very well have been the albums single in its own right. Aside from a few bizarre guitar lines that sound out of place, this is a solid tune. "Baby Jee and the 3 Stalkers" is a very straightforward Thrash song with some progressive elements thrown in there to keep it interesting. As on all the other tracks, the guitar work and vocal lines really bring the track to life and make it more than just another song. There are some melodic, twin guitar lines on this track that work very nicely, and it would be great to see this band utilise sounds and styles like this more often in their music. "King of the Red" sees the Black Metal influences in the bands sound come to the fore once again, to great effect. It's a much slower, darker track that sounds really amazing. This is quickly followed by another great Extreme Thrash song, "It Came From the Brain", which is an intense, powerful song on which to bring this album to a climax before its final offering, "The Grand Theology"; This final song is a fairly good closer, with plenty of emotive guitars and drumming that really help build the track up initially, before it charges headlong back into the sort of technical thrashiness that we've come to expect from these guys. As the last notes fade, it's clear that this is a particularly strong closer to a great record.

Like I said above, although this band writes comedic lyrics, they clearly take the song writing process very seriously; This is Extreme Thrash with a thin, yet obvious, Black Metal influence layered over the top, and there's plenty of technical guitar lines and progressive touches to make this an album that appeal to Extreme Metal fans of pretty much every form. This is an album that you should check out at least once, especially if you like your riffs razor sharp and your lyrics strictly tongue in cheek.<