Hailing from Istanbul, Turkey, death dealers Persecutory don’t make music for the weak. Their debut album, Towards the Ultimate Extinction, is the audio equivalent of having your skin peeled from your bones over forty-two grueling and relentlessly crushing minutes. Sound like your cup of tea? You’re in luck, as we are proud to bring to your emaciated earholes an exclusive premier of this black hole of a record.
Technically, Persecutory play a hybrid brand of black and death metal drenched in the heaviness of bands like Cryptopsy with the raw, jagged production quality of early Incantation. The music is manically paced, blasting through seven tracks of mayhem like a runaway train into hell. Vocalist Tyrannic Profanator’s screams and howls are consistently visceral and borderline deranged, while the work of guitarists Vulgargoat and Infectious Torment (lord, these names…) are as frantic and fast as the best black metal can offer. While this album doesn’t sit comfortably or firmly in any individual subgenre, black, death, and thrash metal elements make their presence felt throughout. Effectively meshing these styles into a cohesive flood of sound is drummer A.D.B, whose blasts and fills create a scorched earth atmosphere that leaves no corner of the mix unscathed.
Another notable aspect of Towards the Ultimate Extinction is the production. When the first sounds hit your ears during album opener “Pillars of Dismay”, don’t be surprised if you feel a bit taken aback by the mix, in particular the sheer dominance of the guitars. Give it a few moments, as this aspect eventually becomes a detailed wall of sound that allows listeners to immerse themselves entirely into the dark world Persecutory has created. The album’s title track follows “Pillars” and is an eleven-minute maelstrom of scrappy, horrendously foul blackened death metal intended to cook your brain inside of your skull. In this it succeeds brilliantly, and is one of the true highlights of the album. If you like your metal dark, brutal, and unconscionably fast, Persecutory will bring you to your knees in blind submission. Enter at your own peril.