Review by Greg on July 15, 2024.

After having been exposed to Spiral of Downfall, the latest effort by Bulgaria's Terravore, the least I could do was trace back what else they had done before it. Said album, indeed, showed a band that, while not standing out for its sky high riff quality, threw some curveballs more or less in every song, often coinciding with the bridge or solo, managing to keep your attention high. This previous Vortex of Perishment isn't that different at surface level, with a moderately aggressive sound, a venomous, Teutonic growler at the mic, assisted by the ubiquitous gang shouts, used more or less in every song (sometimes even to the point of saturation like in 'Vespa Crabro' or 'Decapitating Lead'), albeit too timid in volume. Of course, the leads of Ivan Lazarov and Boiko Nikolaev are still the highlight.

Much like with their later effort, though, I don't necessarily approve their penchant for extending most of the tracks beyond 6 minutes, as 'Carnal Beast' or 'Poltergeist' are simply overbloated, and even a killer track like 'Fatal Desire' doesn't offer enough riffs to justify its long-winded intro (even if on my first listen I amusingly confused that guitar squeal with an Araya-style falsetto). The last mentioned also inaugurates the most successful streak, with late highlight 'Nuclear Dawn' already hooking you in from the intro, and mammoth 'Journey to the End of Time' justifying its length with more elaborate riffs, not unlike subsequent closer 'Nostromo' (albeit with less Death, this time), marking a truly convincing ending. Which is a huge rebound from the rest of the album that mainly consisted of cool ideas scattered around, but not properly exploited (and starting the verse with the sound of somebody firing a shotgun like in 'Decapitating Lead' will never not be cool).

I'd say Terravore's biggest limit is that they often sound like they can't decide on who they really want to be. They're too coarse to compete with the Invictas of this world, yet not enough to give bands like Terminalist a run for their money. Nevertheless, Spiral of Downfall managed to turn that confusion into versatility and will to experiment, while on Vortex of Perishment the guys were perhaps at a too early stage to equally succeed. A solid album, but a not really necessary one at the end of the day.

Rating: 6.6 out of 10