Kev Rowland

It’s twenty-five years, since Thus Defiled came screaming into the world, drunk on sacrificial blood and aflame with blasphemy. They cut a blazing path through the black metal underground, releasing a series of unholy, Christ-crushing albums and EPs and sharing the stage with the greatest extreme metal has ever produced – Mayhem, Blasphemy, Rotting Christ, Cradle Of Filth, Dissection, Cannibal Corpse, Immolation and many more. A year ago, they crept back into the light with a deluxe reissue of a couple of their more sought after releases under the title ‘An Unhallowed Legacy’. This was their first release since 2011’s ‘Swine Of Hades’, and the response saw them decide to get back together for one last time and now we have ‘A Return To The Shadows’, a new EP featuring one never before heard original track and four cover versions from Death, Metallica, Morbid Angel and W.A.S.P.; reinterpretations of the songs that first helped inspire them right at the beginning.

Mike Browning (Nocturnus, ex-Morbid Angel) and Donn Donni (Vesperian Sorrow) make guest appearances, with Mike revisiting “Demon Seed”, which he originally sang on more than thirty years ago! The five songs show a band that are at the absolute peak, with a brutal death metal/black metal crossover that is as relevant today as it is has ever been, and the only problem I have with this five song EP is that it should be a full album! Whether you want powerful drumming, crunching tight guitars, or a strong vocal attack, it is all here, and then some. This is Black Metal at its very finest, it honesty doesn’t get much better than this. For fans of Venom, Immortal, Cradle Of Filth, Morbid Angel or Death.