Primal, caustically charged, and furiously apoplectic is an apt synopsis of VIOLENT LIFE VIOLENT DEATH's brutal debut full-length, "Break. Burn. End". The metallic hardcore band from Charlotte, North Carolina, already have a clutch of EP's to their name since 2016, but their fury has been uncompromisingly unleashed in their full-throttle, jugular slicing album debut. Driven by the sincerity of hardcore angst and wrapped in lashings of brawny, deathcore meets thrash-styled riffs, VIOLENT LIFE VIOLENT DEATH have ensured they've created a hostile slab of surly metallic hardcore that grips you in a chokehold of finality with every ounce of violent lethality.

The lifeblood of "Break. Burn. End" is its hardnosed virulence ensanguined with the blood of internal battles, of personal revelations, and harsh realisations, so much so, you can taste the iron in your mouth as you listen to this bloodstained ten-track brain crusher. The bleak, barrelled riffs of "Weapon of Pain" serve as a warning of an oppressive and unyielding listen ahead, with the hungry jaws of "The Snapping of Teeth" foaming with Cowan's devastatingly crushing vocals, reminiscent of the menacing style of ALL OUT WAR's Mike Score. Despite the core breakdowns mostly bleeding out at the end of the tracks, the band's use of dissonance provides a hefty backbone to sink your teeth into and harnesses your will to self-eviscerate, especially combined with some gnarly time signatures in "Deceit Welcomed by Blind Grace", and if the causticity of the album hadn't already become a palpable neck-wrecker, "Devastation on the Tip of the Tongue" will remedy that.

Whilst "Break. Burn. End" is a thrashy, metallic hardcore majority in its offerings, VIOLENT LIFE VIOLENT DEATH don't shy away from breaking out a few tricks from other realms. Take the black metal blasts to open the incendiary "The Light Behind" a track that then steadily warps into a punky flavour with its D-beat fury and ploughs through you with an onslaught of impassioned rage. The seething title-track will have you impaled on a sharp-tongued knife-edge, and the barrage of fills, explosive riffs, and downright corrosive vocals of "Saying Your Name is to Choke on Ash" will melt your face clean off. "Break. Burn. End" is designed to be biting and embittered, and "Maintain the Quiet" is aptly as loud and chaotic as it gets with its acidic tones and maelstrom of frenzied instrumentals and burns with its scorn. The rivers of aggression continue to flow thick and fast in a ceaseless meandering of brutal riffs and drums of malintent in "Heaven So Far Away", with a vocal display that is anything but celestial and ravages your ears throughout, and the violent blasts and suffocating atmospheres of "Come Armageddon" bookend this ceaseless album in a crushingly fitting finality.

Although the cuts are short in length, VIOLENT LIFE VIOLENT DEATH ensure that each of the ten tracks are impactful and alight with power and passion. If you live for seas of sanguinary sonics in your music, you'll love this album. Forget crowd killing: "Break. Burn. End." is going to cause mass murder.