Review by Vladimir on April 8, 2024.

It is time to enter the twelfth gate with the Polish blackened thrash metal band Deep Desolation, as I take a look at their fifth full-length album Dwunaste Wrota, released on June 2023 via the label Lower Silesian Stronghold, also co-released with Werewolf Promotion and Demented Omen Of Masochism.

Deep Desolation strikes hard with an intense and macabre black/thrash metal, full of chaos and blasphemy in their tremolo picking riffs, fast drums and harsh shouting vocals. Demonic aggression, bestial anger, and raw energy flows very strong throughout the entire album, which progressively gets darker and heavier. Interestingly, they spice things up nicely on their fourth track 'Miński' with some catchiness in the riffs and the brief inclusion of unusual epic ooh vocals. Other interesting moments on this album worth mentioning is the Motorhead-like guitar solo with double-bass drumming in the background on the seventh track 'Pani Konających', giving an extra edge to their black/thrash metal approach. Although it gets heavier and more intense later on, the album keeps that even flow of the heaviness and the aggression throughout every track, consistently maintaining that level and power in the music.

Musically it is pretty dynamic and moderately complex, with stylistic consistency in their songwriting that was effectively carried out. This album has a lot of enjoyable riffs and solos that successfully compliment the song, with a nice transition between each section and a strong sense of progression. The riffs are packed with immense chaos and destruction, which also carry a bit of hardcore punk attitude within that aggression. One thing that really caught my eye about this album is the cover art by Robert A. von Ritter, which is stylistically very similar to that of Lawless Darkness by Zbigniew Bielak, mostly due to the use of same colors and the art style, however considering the fact that both artists are Polish, you can probably tell that this is a very usual thing amongst Poland’s accomplished artists.

It's a very enjoyable album that has a strong edge and punch to it, holding a solid balance between black and thrash metal ideas that were incorporated. I like this album overall and I think you should definitely check it out, especially since it’s very much a “piss off” kind of black metal release.

Rating: 8 out of 10