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WHIPSTRIKER / VENOMWOLF / GRAVE ALTAR / FLAGELADÖR
Four Band Split EP

Vicious Witch (2025)
Rating: 7/10

Nik at Vicious Witch Records has been spitting out some great metal over the years. He’s always had a thirst for promoting a lot of blackened speed metal and with this devilish four way split EP there’s more billowing rust to inhale. Two of the bands here – Whipstriker and Flageladör – hail from Brazil and dish up fully spiked speed metal. Meanwhile, the other two acts – Venomwolf and Grave Altar – are from the UK, and again they tend to veer towards blackened styling.

First up on the wax is Whipstriker who have been loitering around in the shadows of the underground since 2008 and have been involved in more split projects than there are grains of sand on a beach. Their track is entitled ‘Landmine Dance’ which is a surprisingly mid-paced affair that echoes with a Venom or Bulldozer vibe, transporting me back to the days of those early Speed Kills compilation albums. There’s a cavernous drunken drool to the vocals and an archaic clank to drum and riff, but it’s the ideal starter if you want to be dragged into the bowels of Hell.

As equally primitive, but strikingly faster, is Scotland’s Venomwolf, the brainchild of Glaswegian Duncan McLaren. If Whipstriker were the revving engines of Hell’s Angels, then Venomwolf’s ‘Deathwalker’ is satanic speedway action. It’s zipping black thrash with abrasive calls and feral drums which sound to me as if Duncan has fallen down the stairs adorned in armour! Amongst the brash tumult there’s still time for a wild solo that’ll leave scorch marks on the bed sheets, but such a riotous affair is certainly welcome.

Next up is England’s Grave Altar who impressed at the beginning of the year with their sophomore outing Shrines Of Hatred. Here, the trio serves up ‘Infernal Command’, a strong effort as expected that begins with a classic thrash chug before you’re hit with a Teutonic force that ripples with choppy vocals and riffs which cause whiplash. The track is a hellish, almost hardcore-esque rant conjured straight from the depths of the early 80s underground with lashes of Destruction and Sodom fused with a very early Onslaught with a South American topping.

Flageladör round off this EP with ‘Encarnação do mal’. Now, this band has been around since 2000 but this track really does sound like it was born in the early-to-mid 80s. It’s mainly down to the yappy vocal snaps, although the vocals also drift into deeper gasps for air and gruff yelps. It’s speedy and raw but quite fitting, so hats off to whoever’s idea it was to collate these four acts.

Well established bands they all may be, but if you’re unfamiliar with this quartet of screaming clanking banshees then what better way to be introduced than with this here split project.

Neil Arnold

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