EP REVIEW: Black Wind – Munitions

Not content to leave it at the excellent Grind ‘Til Death by REMAINS from earlier this year, the Melbourne extreme metal scene has another gem for us in the form of the debut EP from MUNITIONS. Formed in 2021 and having battled through lockdowns to get here, the five-piece finally present Black Wind: four tracks of bracing blackened death metal that points to their significant combined experience in the Melbourne scene.

An instant and pretty significant tick here is just how good this record sounds – especially for a debut EP. Everything feels like it’s just a touch in the red, but in a potent and powerful way rather than a messy or overly distorted one. The drums are super crisp and clear, which really helps given how happily these guys are to rely on a tried and tested blast beat or an onslaught of double kicks, and the guitars have a real sharpness to them that helps the band’s bigger, more death metally riffs hit with all the force that’s required of them. Of course, a good production job isn’t the be-all and end-all in music like this, but it does give the band a steady jumping off point from which to launch their volleys of blackened extremity.

And that’s exactly what they spend Black Wind’s 16 minutes and 23 seconds doing. This isn’t a hugely varied record, and there’s scarcely a second of quiet or respite, but the high standard and tight runtime make it pretty hard to offer any serious complaints. MUNITIONS are great at high-speed blasting, but they’re also just as solid at proper headbanging riffs which keep things just varied enough across these four tracks. Inevitably some of this more groove-driven stuff is more immediately compelling, particularly some of the doomy heft of Latent Image or the uglier punishing of Machine Elves, for example, but there are no obvious gaps in proficiency in whatever the band put their hands to here.

As such, Black Wind quite quickly whistles by its listeners – in a good way. This is a short sharp shock of blackened death metal which shouldn’t throw up any huge surprises for anyone with even a passing familiarity with the genre, but the quality is high enough at every turn to ensure that MUNITIONS are absolutely deserving of a place on your radar.

Rating: 7/10

Black Wind is set for release on November 1st via self-release.

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