DESTROYER 666 Unchain The Wolves (CD) 1997

Melbourne gave the world plenty of things, but few as uncompromising as Destroyer 666. Before they relocated to Europe and became a pillar of the global black/thrash underground, they were right here, playing with a ferocity that the local scene hadn't quite seen before.

Unchain The Wolves is where it started. Released in 1997, this debut full-length is Australian extreme metal at its most visceral, a blackened thrash assault that owes as much to Motörhead and Bathory as it does to the second-wave Norwegian scene. K.K. Warslut's vision was always too wild for genre boxes, and this record proves it. It sounds like it was recorded in a burning shed and that is absolutely not a criticism. Essential listening if you're serious about the history of Australian heavy music, and a genuine artifact of the Melbourne underground.

Format: Full-length album CD reissue. Country of origin: Australia.

Fans of: Venom, Bathory, Motörhead, Bestial Warlust, Gospel of the Horns