No doubt there are more than a few readers here that will feel a twinge of excitement at the prospect of blackened thrash from Germany, so associated is that country with true cornerstones of that ungodly medium. Not wishing to throw us any unnecessary surprises, there is little doubt who this band has been channelling in their nine-year existence, which has yielded two albums but countless splits and EPs. This is thrash very much in the early-Destruction or Sodom school, with a grimy, grating tone and fast riffs that assume distinctive and disturbing shapes, as if hacked from hunks of rotten meat by a Mad Butcher’s cleaver.

So, take songs like Creation of the Dispossessed, or Slaughter Command. Like the classic song whose name I have oh-so-sneakily worked into the previous paragraph, they writhe with curious and snaking riffs that sound, the first time you hear them, a little bit too elaborate and irregular to really rock, but when turned loose any doubts are dispelled. Part of what makes this band worthwhile is their flair for this most basic metallic building block, which elevates them above the more linear “dugadugaduga” route of various other thrash acts.

At other points, this has an impromptu, uneasy feel, as with Swarm of Insects, in which at some you being to wonder whether the truly vicious rhythm section isn’t trying to restrain itself from flattening the mocking guitar lines. In this sense, Nocturnal are resurrecting another fine Sodom-ic tradition, the performance which sounds a little cobbled together, even if the band an everybody else is having too good a time to notice. It’s all about the low-budget lovability.

One final thing to be said about the sound; it is heavy, and has more of a grimy sonic weight to it than the occasionally flimsy production of the early works of those bands mentioned in this review. Part of this must come from the vocals, provided by Necrosadistic Goat Torture alumnus, Tyrannizer. Her performance is both maniacal and guttural, with moments such as the protracted “yeah!” that welcomes us into opener Hellhunt giving Violent Revenge an aura of malevolent excitement that it never really loses.

All in all, a cool album, albeit one which doesn’t diverge too much from a familiar pattern. Some killer riffs and crackling energy lift it above the average, to make this something eminently worthwhile for thrashers.