ALBUM REVIEW: DeathWestern – SpiritWorld

Imagine if Ennio Morricone had scored The Good, The Bad And The Ugly with the driving force of death metal, the hammer-slamming-head stomp of hardcore, and the threatening aura of thrash metal, and you’ll be suitably prepared for stepping into DeathWestern’s universe. Returning to its predecessor Pagan Rhythms’ spaghetti western-meets-ROB ZOMBIE 80s B-movie horror storyline, SPIRITWORLD double down on their mutilation of extreme metal into accessible, arena anthems on album number two.

Opening gambit Mojave Bloodlust’s rustling winds, screeching hawks, and twangy-guitars not only set the scene, but lay out DeathWestern’s stall too, asking you “Are you antichrist or are you for christ, those are your only options?” From here on out, frontman Stu Folsom steals the mic and delivers a nightmarish narrative of devilish antics like Lucifer himself.

SPIRITWORLD’s disregard for genre conventions creates a duality of sounds that leaves you spin-kicking your way through the mosh-pit whilst screaming back the lyrics like you’re stood in an arena. It owes as much to hardcore luminaries like AGNOSTIC FRONT and CRO-MAGS as it does the southern groove of LAMB OF GOD (Relic Of Damnation), the progressive Atlantan sludge of Leviathan-era MASTODON (The Heretic Butcher), and the crossover thrash carnage caused by POWER TRIP and FUGITIVE (Moonlit Torture).

But DeathWestern isn’t a tribute, it’s a trailblazing mutation that spits venom. There’s a sonic thread tying the band’s songs together, an underlying formula that’s been painstakingly perfected over and over and injected into each song like Folsom’s creating a clone army, but they all stand on their own two feet as SPIRITWORLD’s super soldiers. Not only that, every song is a world unto itself.

Relic Of Damnation rolls up and down your spine like a wave rising against the tide, double-bass drums doing double-time as Folsom’s vocals rip into the world like a tsunami tearing apart a small town; U L C E R’s solos shred your head like you’ve swallowed too many tabs of speed before its drilling dissonance makes you want to throw yourself into a pit of piranhas; and Lujeria Satanica’s guttural growls are the sound of the devil himself hell bent on wreaking carnage upon the world.  

However, as hard as this record hits, as effective and infectious as its call-and-response harmonies are in possessing your soul, willing you to dance like the devil himself, nothing takes away from the heart and soul of DeathWestern and SPIRITWORLD at large: the storytelling. Samples fade in and out of consciousness, blending subtly into swelling drum fills and rapturous riffs, whilst brief palette cleansers that clear the way for more action are injected with immediate effect. Take Committee Of Buzzard’s Matrix-like snap-back-to-reality as its sampling slips in and out of consciousness between its drilling double-bass, or The Heretic Butcher’s atmospheric introduction that feels like you’re watching the sunset as dusk falls, from bright blue to pale pink, and onwards into the night. 

There’s no explicit plotline provided by SPIRITWORLD for DeathWestern, but if you’re to fully immerse yourself, you better get reacquainted with Pagan Rhythms and the short story collection Godlessness, as it’s intricately linked throughout. The title track definitely cries out in its opening moments “There’s a godlessness in a cold dead heart / When there is no faith the devil takes charge” as it’s clear that from the outset and throughout, you’re watching a spaghetti western nightmare unfold.

If Pagan Rhythms felt like a shotgun blast introduction into Stu Folsom’s SPIRITWORLD, DeathWestern is the rare sequel, the Empire Strikes Back, that shines above what comes before; if this doesn’t cause disaster for your album of the year lists, we’ll eat our hats. 

Rating: 10/10

DeathWestern is set for release on November 25th via Century Media Records.

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