Review by Carl on January 5, 2022.

Blood Storm is old school as fuck, simple as that. Where other contemporary bands adhering to the sounds of yore can come across as forced, Blood Storm quite simply ooze conviction and old school underground spirit. There is not a single dud in their discography in my opinion, all their output is well worth the effort, and this applies to The Stellar Exorcism as well. What else was there to be expected from former members of bands like Goreaphobia and Necrovore?

There are two sides to the force that is The Stellar Exorcism. There are on one side the slower (mid tempo) parts, like in opener 'Howling Void' or 'Winds Of Faceless And Terrible Ones', where the influence of Hellhammer/early Celtic Frost is totally up front, and on the other side there are tracks like 'Ituhat Ipsos' and 'Venom Elementals', where Blood Storm conjure up the spirit of acts like Possessed and early Sodom, getting beaten up by Sarcofago and Sextrash. One would think that this approach leads to a schizophrenic sounding album, but Blood Storm manages to make it all blend together in a way that doesn't sound forced in any way. The different approaches complement each other very effectively: the primal, thudding slow passages work extremely well with the raging fast parts that the band have on offer. Nice touch are the Tom Warrior-esque vocals that are employed here and there in the slower tracks, nailing the atmosphere right on the head. Also a nice touch is that after a few listens other, even more ancient, influences start to become apparent. In some of the tracks runs the subtle influence of old speed metallers like Anvil and Exciter, with other, not so subtle, nods to Mercyful Fate/King Diamond as well. After a veritable metal storm the album closes with the instrumental outro 'Unwinking Eye Of Oblivion', a short, harrowing ambient piece that oddly enough reminded me of Trentemøller's "Moan". That's probably just me, so perhaps don't pay too much attention to this.

This monolith of old school metal worship is being held together by a very fitting, unpolished production job. First time I heard it, it had me thinking of a metallic version of the Discharge album "Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing". It fits the music perfectly: all the instrumentation is audible and it's certainly not short on power and aggression.

Even if this release doesn't grab me in the same way that their Pestilence From The Dragonstar did (for me, their magnum opus), this is another excellent Blood Storm release. If you appreciate bands like Pentacle, Hellsodomy and Warhammer, or old school styled death/black metal in general, go check out Blood Storm and their output if you haven't already.

They don't come any truer than this, that's for sure!

Rating: 9 out of 10