Weapon

Edmonton, AB's death/black troupe Weapon kick off their second full-length with the seven-plus-minute title track, which annihilates like Incantation at their razor sharpest, featuring some kick-ass guitar soloing to boot, not to mention a semi-decent death grunt. The band's guitar work is stellar, alternating between lightning-fast death and black riffing to slower, drawn-out doom, but always sticking to the death/black framework. The trouble comes with the long songs. Individually they work fine, which is no small feat for seven- and eight-minute songs, but stick nine of them together and you've got 55 minutes of extremely intense music. Some moments of respite – the slower, melodic refrains of "Vested in Surplice and Violet Stole" or the sheer economy of "Furor Divinus," which clocks in at 3:51 – help. "The Inner Wolf" is a masterwork of epic death/black, showcasing a maturity rarely seen in the genre. These guys might want to go the Reign in Blood route next time and get in and out faster for an even brutaler album – if this was half the length, it'd be one of the best extreme releases of the year. As is, it still packs a terrific punch, but is best served up over a couple of sittings (the last four songs alone are 28 minutes) for maximum brutality.