THE SYNN REPORT (PART 174): OXYGEN DESTROYER

Recommended for fans of: Vader, Goatwhore, Revocation

Sometimes a band and their theme just go so well together – think Slugdge and their mollusc-worshipping metallic magic, or Sulphur Aeon and their obsessive Lovecraftian occultism – that you can’t ever imagine them doing, saying, or singing about anything else.

Such is the case with Seattle’s own Oxygen Destroyer whose monstrous sound – a ravenous hybrid of Death, Black, and Thrash Metal, designed to take your breath away  – has become totally inseparable from their monstrous subject matter.

So prepare yourselves, it’s time for a rampage.

2018 – BESTIAL MANIFESTATIONS OF MALEVOLENCE AND DEATH

Ah, the sound of an air-raid siren… nothing says “things are about to get serious” like that eerie, howling drone, and nothing suits the start of Oxygen Destroyer‘s first album better than this auditory warning that “here be (atomic) monsters”.

The slithering tremolo riffs of “Cleansing the Earth of Humanity’s Existence” soon make good on this promise as they set the stage for a brutish, mostly instrumental, assault on the senses that fires off riffs like rapid-fire rifle-rounds, only for the scything, sub-three-minute blast ‘n’ thrash-a-thon of “Onslaught of the Precambrian Hordes” to turn up the heat even higher.

“Subsumed Within the Bowels of the Perennial Monstrosity” (keep your ears open for vocalist/guitarist Jordan Farrow’s cracked and crooked scream of the track title) then doubles down on the thrashier side of the band’s persona, while still keeping that excessively extreme edge which ensures that Oxygen Destroyer won’t ever get lumped in with the usual “Old School” revivalists, after which “Summoning the Moth of Divinity” (a personal favourite of mine) pushes the Death Metal elements a little more to the forefront, while also experimenting with some suitably monstrous grooves.

“Vanquished by the Unrelenting Devastation of the Celestial Behemoth” (try saying that three times fast… or just once…) picks up where its predecessor left off, deathly groove and thrashy intensity with blistering blackened velocity – as well as some, dare I say it, almost “classic” lead and rhythm guitar work in its second half – only for “Biomechanically Imprisoning the Sacred Beast of the Apocalypse” to demonstrate that, just when you thought it was safe to relax your guard, the OD crew are ready to rip you a new one.

And rip they do indeed, especially on the absolutely punishing pairing of the aptly-named “Supersonic Devastator” (which might as well describe drummer Chris Craven) and “Death to the False King”, which together clock in at a lean, mean two-and-a-half minutes in total, successfully softening the audience up for one last auditory assault (not counting the two bonus tracks featured on the remastered version of the album) in the shape of the barbaric Black Thrash madness of “Atomic Breath”.

2021 – SINISTER MONSTROSITIES SPAWNED BY THE UNFATHOMABLE IGNORANCE OF HUMANKIND

As good as the band’s debut was (and still is, let me be clear) their second album is even better, kicking off with the savage Death-Thrash bombardment of “Merciless Embodiment of Everlasting Death”, which quickly showcases all the newly evolved weapons – sharper, more cutting guitars, punchier, more powerful drums, and an even tighter, more terrifying delivery – they have at their disposal this time around.

“Possessing the Putrified Remnants of the Unholy God Incarnate” also showcases the even more blackened edge they’ve achieved this time around, the song’s ultra-high intensity tremolo guitars and equally high-velocity blastbeats occasionally giving way to a lurching Death Metal groove or a sudden burst of thrashy shreddery that only serves to enhance the contrast between these various elements (with the blast-tastic strains of “Slaughtering the Guardian Monsters” arguably pushing things even further towards the extreme).

With the harshly hooky “Sons of the Necrobeast” the band then give latter-day 1349 a real run for their money, raising the blackened bar while simultaneously thrashing even harder than ever – to the point where I’m honestly not sure who’d win if the two bands ever fought (though I know the devastation would be immense) – after which “Enduring the Maternal Rage of the Amphibious Monstrosity” (which is one of the album’s biggest highlights) delivers a blast-propelled Death-Thrash beating worthy of Vader at their most brutal and unforgiving.

“The Plague Spreading Horror from 20,000 Fathoms” then throws an unexpected, but not unwelcome, curve-ball by dropping in some of the catchiest riffs and most headbangable rhythms of the band’s career (thus far anyway) amidst all the explosions of depth-charge Death-Thrash, while “As Big As A Battleship” once again demonstrates just how much damage Oxygen Destroyer can do in under two minutes.

Concluding with the band’s longest, most ambitious song to date, the manically riffy, lethally infectious, Revocation-esque “Their Reign Has Begun”, Sinister Monstrosities… ends not with a bang, or with a whimper, but with a fire-breathing, face-melting, atomic bellow of primal rage that finds the whole band right on the edge of spontaneous combustion… and that’s exactly where we like ’em!

2024 – GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE

You know how they say “go big, or go home”? Well, Oxygen Destroyer definitely went big on Guardian of the Universe which plays down the more “blackened” vibe of previous albums in favour of an even bigger, heavier, and more crushingly catchy approach that seems destined to raise their profile higher than ever.

Just listen to how humongous the entire band sound on the opening title-track, whose gigantic, Gamera-sized guitars and explosive drums could practically stomp anything from the last two albums into the dirt, or how the unrelenting Ultra-Thrash of “Drawing Power From The Empathetic Priestess Of Tranquility” manages to pack in more killer riffs in less than two minutes than some bands manage in entire albums.

It’s also heavily apparent on tracks like “Shadow of Evil” and “My Name Is Legion” – the former a belt-fed gatling-gun of devastating Death-Thrash madness that sounds like Witchery on gamma-irradiated steroids (drummer Chris Craven in particular hulking out even more than usual), the latter being four merciless minutes of fretboard burning velocity and finger-snapping technicality – that the group have mutated even more in a way which allows them to balance hooks and heaviness better than ever before.

Speaking of hooks… if “Eradicating The Symbiotic Hive Mind Entity From Beyond The Void” doesn’t get its twisted talons into your brain almost immediately – while also melting your face through sheer acceleration and grabbing you right by the guts with its vicious, visceral vocals – I’ll be very surprised (though perhaps not as surprised as some of you might be when “Nightmarish Visions Of The Devil’s Envoy” somehow pushes reactor even further into the red with some of the most excessively extreme moments I’ve heard all year).

The Crown-esque “Awaking The Malevolent Destroyer Of The Heavens and Earth” then quickly establishes itself as a major highlight of the album, managing to be both more immersive and more nuanced – the little samples and sound-bites in particular seem extra effective here – while still being as aggressive and violent as ever, with the virulent uber-thrashy riffage and biting hooks of “Banishing The Iris Of Sempiternal Tenebrosity” then launching themselves out of the speakers like a kaiju-sized version of Kreator.

And then there’s cataclysmic closer “Exterminating The Ravenous Horde Of Perpetual Darkness And Annihilation” whose combination of Death Metal force and Thrash Metal frenzy grooves and blasts, shreds and batters, the listener into submission one last time before the band sink back into the depths once more, leaving nothing but devastation (and sore necks) in their wake.