ATOMIC AGGRESSOR The Occult Forces [CD]

At ground zero of Chile's still-thriving death metal scene, ATOMIC AGGRESSOR had a strong hand in shaping that supreme sound back in the late '80s with 1989's influential Bloody Ceremonial demo and 1991's subsequent Resurrection demo. Prematurely, the band broke up but re-formed in 2007 to play a number of national festivals, proving that the ancient hellfire still burned brightly.

With two founding members at the helm, vocalist/bassist Alejandro Diaz and guitarist Enrique Zuñiga, ATOMIC AGGRESSOR released a well-received split 7" with Death Yell in 2013, further proving that their barbaric deathrash had lost none of its violence & force. But that split was a mere appetizer for the band's long-awaited debut album, Sights of Suffering, which HELLS HEADBANGERS released to widespread acclaim at the end of 2014. Some 25 years on from their original formation, ATOMIC AGGRESSOR continued where they started in the late '80s, but brimmed with a belligerence and bluster that belied their seemingly advanced age. Indeed, old dogs do old tricks! And they did those old tricks again with 2019's Invoking the Primal Chaos EP, continuing that fiery momentum as if five years hadn't passed.

Alas, seven years after that record comes ATOMIC AGGRESSOR's LONG-awaited second album, The Occult Forces. Once again, time simply does not pass in these Chileans' world, for they pick up exactly where they left off with Invoking the Primal Chaos: pure and total DEATH METAL that's evil and a bit blackened, explosive but finessed. It's almost insane how ATOMIC AGGRESSOR just don't seem to age, like some metalized portrait of Dorian Gray, and their execution here is sharper than ever, serving their songwriting with malicious intent and maximum overdrive. That The Occult Forces could've been released in 1989, 1999, 2009, or 2019 speaks volumes about the timelessness of the quartet's craft. More than a "throwback," however, ATOMIC AGGRESSOR show that they're STILL the Real Deal; such songs can only come from those who grew up - and bled - in the 1980s, especially a landscape as lawless as South America. If there's one development here, it's that the characteristically maniacal solos are a bit more reigned in, more diabolical in their classier exposition.

All told, The Occult Forces is as swift as a missile at eight songs in 40 minutes...if it takes ATOMIC AGGRESSOR another five-plus years to put out another record, it's not for lack of deadly efficiency!