GHOUL: Transmission Zero CD

Oakland's Ghoul have been running one of metal's greatest long cons since 2002, a rotating cast of masked cannibals from the fictional town of Creepsylvania who play death/thrash so tight and gleefully unhinged it makes you forget you're laughing and headbanging at the same time.

Transmission Zero is their 2011 concept record, a full-blown sci-fi horror narrative wrapped around riffs that owe as much to Municipal Waste and Repulsion as they do to classic thrash. The Lunatic Hour kicks the door in and it never really closes again. Death In The Swamp and The Mark Of Voodoo lean into the grimy, swamp-rot side of their sound, all guttural chaos held together by genuinely excellent songwriting underneath the gore and grind. For fans of underground death metal, grindcore, and horror aesthetics who also think metal should occasionally be fun, Ghoul are essential listening.

CD. Full tracklist: The Lunatic Hour, Off With Their Heads, Destructor, Death In The Swamp, The Mark Of Voodoo, Brain Jerk. US pressing.

Fans of: MUNICIPAL WASTE, REPULSION, CARCASS, SODOM, IMPALED