Review by Felix on August 31, 2022.

The brand new Protector album is a killer, that’s for sure, and maybe it is a good occasion to look back on the first official release of the once completely German formation. Certainly, one cannot compare “Misanthropy” with “Excessive Outburst of Depravity”, but one can put it in a row with other thrashing EPs from the eighties. “Misanthropy” has more compositional substance than Warrant’s “First Strike”, it sounds much more professional than Sodom’s “In the Sign of Evil” and it does not reveal rhythmic problems that made the closer on Destruction’s “Sentence of Death” to something, well, special. Of course, the EP lacks the charm of the imperfect which was Sodom’s greatest advantage in their early days. Anyway, “Misanthropy” makes its statement loud and clear.

Protector came with an EP under their arm that showed an amazing level of technical precision and compositional maturity. In particular the vicious riffing of “Holy Inquisition” illustrates that Protector realized the importance of diabolic catchiness very quickly. The band did not wallow in rumbling, typical Teutonic sounds. The Bay Area delivered the sonic frame, but Protector added a pretty somber touch. Thus, we have a lot of tempo changes, dynamic and variable drumming and we enjoy the expressiveness of the mostly homicidal guitars. Okay, every now and then a part is going nowhere, for example the high-velocity instrumental section of “Agoraphobia” and “Holocaust” plays the typical mediocre closer. But the good sections dominate, for example the chorus part of “The Mercenary” with its intensive double bass support.

Protector’s debut was the first release of the then new Atom H Records label. It was produced by the band itself. Given this situation, one might think that the sound sucks… totally wrong, dudes! The six tracks – let’s forget the irrelevant intro – boast with a clear, sharp and evil mix. Maybe the musicians benefited from their “isolation”. Wolfsburg is no part of the Ruhrpott region, where the German thrash movement made its first moves. Was this the reason why this EP sounds pretty autonomous? Protector could not be confused with Kreator, Tankard or Sodom. Probably Andy Classen loved them, because their approach was not far away from the one of Holy Moses. But it goes without saying that Martin Missy did not follow the style of Sabina. His voice does not sound like the totally individual one of a woman with larynx cancer, but like the typical one of an ordinary male thrash vocalist: raw, somewhat dangeous and fortunately not overly interested in harmonies. It does not matter. Missy delivers no crucial feature, but his performance is convincing. So let’s sum up. Maybe you want to listen to the omega (“Excessive Outburst…”) and the alpha (“Misanthropy”) of Protector? Guess there are many options to spend your time less good.

Rating: 7.3 out of 10

Review by Michael on November 3, 2022.

Trinitas may not be known by many people in the black metal scene because they only released one EP in 2019. But if you take a look at the band members you will know for sure that this won't be a lame duck – main man Vargher (Naglfar, Ancient Wisdom, Throne Of Ahaz, Bewitched (I want a new album!!!!) playing guitars, Tormentor (Asphyx, ex-Desaster, Carnal Ghoul just to name a few) on drums and Azatoth (Gràb, ex-Dark Fortress) on vocals and so here we go with their first full-length album called Total Heresy which was released by Ván Records.

We can find a lot of classic Swedish black metal tunes on the album which clearly wear the fingerprints of Vargher (a lot of melodies are quite similar to his former bands, a lot of atmospheric, mid-tempo- laden sounds). Sometimes it is a kind of dirty bastard between some doomy and black sounds. Azatoths grimy vocals sound very sinister and give the nine songs a very devilish atmosphere. The drumming is powerful and really kicks ass, Tormentor's timing is impeccable and he does a very good job here.

Starting off with slight diabolic spoken words and a very gloomy atmosphere the Swedish-German collaboration opens the 'Tomb Of The Misanthrope' and unleashes a very catchy black metal inferno. The melodies are very repetitive and hypnotic and absolutely comprehendible. A lot of catchy parts that really groove like hell make this song (and also the other songs on the album) a very entertaining black trip. Apart from the influences that Vargher drew from his own creations, we can find some more older influences such as Bathory (the beginning of 'Pyroclastic Crucifixion' is a pure Quorthon worship) or Celtic Frost ('Supernova Lucifer' – one of the most em… creative titles in '22, I guess) which is a very slow song with a lot of Swiss trademarks, starting from the guitars to the vocals. 'Dust And Shadows' is another piece really worth mentioning with some very twisted hook lines that kick ass and stand for the things that at least I liked in the past in all these bands that Vargher played in. But the fact that I mentioned some tracks in particular doesn't mean that there are some weaker tracks to find here. No, that isn't the case – the band has created a modern classic with Total Heresy for sure. I guess if it came out back in mid 90s it would be mentioned together with other classics like Dissection, Throne Of Ahaz, Bewitched (did I already mention that I want a new album???) and so far.

The production sounds pretty old school but not too shabby, it perfectly fits this kind of music. Powerful, a little bit muffled and tinny but this is pretty authentic and absolutely no mistakes in this case. It made me feel a little bit nostalgic about good old black metal days when the aforementioned bands had their heydays.

Rating: 9 out of 10 Bewitched points