Blastbeat Reviews: Hammerdrone, Maze of Terror

Usual spiel: school's been eating up all my time, I've promised a bunch of reviews, so here are some quick ones for you. 

HAMMERDRONE - CLONE OF EUROPA

Y'all remember Hammerdrone, right? Those Canadian boys riffing out some good old fashioned death metal with heavy melodeath and blackened death influences? Well, they're back with a new full length to tear your faces off. These guys still rock their heavy Behemoth and Goatwhore influences from before, but on Clone of Europa they're bringing in some Gothenburg melodic death metal sounds into the fray as well.

In pretty much every way, Clone of Europa is a giant step ahead of A Demon Rising. The musicianship is tighter, the production is heavy as fuck, and the songs flow better, showing some serious soundscaping and atmosphere building abilities on the band's part. If you're into death metal or melodic death metal at all, I can't recommend Clone of Europa enough. Check it out on Bandcamp here, and visit them on the Facetubes here. Overall Score: 4/5.

MAZE OF TERROR - SKULL CRUSHER EP

Maze of Terror hail from Lima, Peru and play thrash fucking metal. No, not thrash metal. Thrash. Fucking. Metal. These guys are relatively new on the scene having only formed in 2011, but they're firing on all cylinders on their first release. They've got their own style of old school Bay Area thrash mixed with the neo-thrash movement started with bands like Toxic Holocaust and Warbringer, with just a hint of European thrash sprinkled on top. The result is some heavy, fast, and vicious thrash metal that can appease any headbanger. Skull Crusher reminds me heavily of Needs More Noise Gate favorites Termination Force and Zafakon, and as I wrote that sentence all I can think about about is how freaking wicked it would be to have a Termination Force, Zafakon and Maze of Terror tour, but I digress. Maze of Terror kicks all kinds of ass, and you should listen to Skull Crusher right now. You can check them out on Facebook, and listen to some of this EP on Youtube. Score 4/5

That's all for now, folks!

-DG