Review by Felix on February 14, 2020.

Here we have a special crew: ladies and gentlemen, Felix proudly presents the Brazilian champions of shitty artworks. Devil's Whorehouse might not be their prime example of idiocy, just remember Sadismo. However, the cover is ridiculous. But I have to stay fair. And honestly speaking, this is no big challenge for me, because Power from Hell play very casual black thrash. Absolutely reduced to the essentials and without any surprising twists and turns, they spit their snot into the audience. To call the pretty dull production crude is still a euphemism, but probably this is exactly the sound the band asked for. No high gloss, please!

Either way, I would be wronging the dudes if I did not emphasize the fact that they deliver at least one big surprise. "Long Road to Hell" shocks with a bluesy pattern and sounds like the criminal brother of "Night Prowler", a number from 1979 which was performed by an almost unknown band from Down Under. Sorry, I have forgotten the name of these Australian dudes - cannot keep all these irrelevant formations in my mind, but I guess the song was the closer of an album called "Highway to Power from Hell". It doesn't matter... I do not know whether I like this experiment of the South American trio, but their typical tracks make me grin maliciously. These lads are surely not the world's best instrumentalists, but they have a knack for effective, compact tracks. They create filthy gems by using simple means. I do not say that each and every track delivers such an explosive mix that a poser dies somewhere in the world whenever Devil's Whorehouse is doing its rounds on the turntable. Nevertheless, some tracks are great.

For example, "Revelations of the Flesh" speeds along the metallic highway and represents the majority of the tracks very well; short, simple, straightforward. There's not much left to discover after having heard the album for the first time. Okay, "Black Forest" seems to be their dark opera with a playtime of almost five minutes and a spooky first half. It remains the only song which creates an atmospheric depth and it meets the further highlights, especially the first tracks of the A side, on an equal footing. But to avoid misunderstandings: Power from Hell do not deliver interwoven patterns, hidden technical details or backward messages. Anyway, the pretty hideous riffs from the highly respected schools of Bathory, Venom and Aura Noir still spread their fascination.

All in all, the music will convince black thrash freaks who like the sub-genre in general and those who have built an altar for Quorthon's debut. (The riffing of the ninth track seems to be borrowed from "Necromancy".) I enjoy the album as well, albeit some lyrics suck. The climax of poetic bullshit is the line "Women scream in pleasure while being raped". Hopefully, the guys will never get caught by some starved homosexual berserks, because I don't want to hear the musician's screams of pleasure. And, as already mentioned, the artwork is dubious as always. Thank God, I am immune against this form of covers. That's why I did not buy the CD - and I will not tell you that I preferred to get the vinyl format.

Rating: 7.3 out of 10

Review by Chris Pratl on October 12, 2018.

Just when I thought all the danger and violence had long been jettisoned from death metal, a band like Imperial Savagery comes along and kickstarts the genre with all of the same implements and nuances that made it the deadly entropy it had been for many years. Hailing from Chicago, the band pretty much employs the original lineup of local underground legends, CorpseVomit, with Enmortem and Pederasty lineage thrown in for good measure. Imperial Savagery, the debut album, proves these guys have had something special as a unit for many years, and it's once more emerged like a festering wound unable, or unwilling, to heal.

When you think of death metal being this "dirty," sullied medium that only the sickest few would actually entertain, this album is all of that and then some. The vocals via Brice Dalzell are a deep-seated howling that are as disgustingly resonating as they are dangerously enticing. I can't say enough how great these vocals are; the almost echoing effect you hear when he bellows is as pure and honest as it gets. Dalzell's infatuation with the darker, evil side of living has always been one of his hallmarks, and the lyrics herein prove that age has done nothing but strengthen his angry resolve. Backed by guitarist Tom Flanagan, bassist Pat Clancy, and drummer Garrett Scanlan, Imperial Savagery has produced what I honestly feel is one of the ugliest, most brutal death metal albums in recent memory. In a sea of pathetic comebacks where every low-tier DM band feels it's time to resurrect their careers because the proverbial iron is hot, the true underground, gritty and soiled with hateful sweat, is a veritable hotbed of talented individuals saying much in little spaces.

After hearing a rough mix of the album a few months back and playing the CD-R to death, I was pleasantly surprised to get the finished product in my greedy hands and hear how the mixing and mastering put the final touches of brutality all over these songs. These songs are fast-paced ditties so thick with an airy volatility and rife with a sort of organized violence that you will find yourself putting this CD on veritable repeat. There are occasional shots in the arm that metal music is afforded now and again, and it sickens me to see some bands, gone for decades, vying to recapture something they never even had to appease the kiddies who troll eBay and drive up the prices on otherwise forgotten CD's to play in he big sandbox. With Imperial Savagery, you get nothing but unapologetic death with a sincerely brutal edge sorely missing from many peers. Tracks like “His Hollow Hands” and “Sneer the Gift” call on the ideas and visages of religious idolatry and subservience, taking them to task for such wanton disregard for the basic and inherent human condition. After Venom, Bathory and Hellhammer effectively took Satan from the depths of Hell and gave him a face and a theme song or ten, the imagery associated with such evil is no longer the accepted Christian creation. Now Dalzell's lyrics paint a very surreal picture of the evil and hatred dwelling in each of us, devoid of any and all objectivity in relation to the subservient mindset. Imperial Savagery is the perfect band to seek out that which is relevant and honest; when your mind is free, you can take in this album from start to finish and be as haunted and fulfilled as I am each time I hear it.

I've known some of these guys for many years, being from my old neighborhood and holding high that mid-80's flag of metal we so proudly waved in the faces of the Madonna and Bruce Springsteen crowds. It gives me a tremendous sense of pride to know that these guys are so ingrained in the metal underground for all of these years. I don't wish to sound at all condescending when I say I'm proud of them for what they're doing and have accomplished. It goes to prove that if you believe strongly in what you're creating, near perfection can be achieved when you're honest and truly understand the metal movement.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

(Originally written for www.metalpsalter.com)