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LOUDER
Devil’s Night

Fighter (2026)
Rating: 7/10

With names like Hellgröwler (vocals and guitar), Deathströker (bass) and Nekrö (drums) I expected this Columbian trio to cough up some unhealthy speed metal, and that’s exactly what happened. With song titles such as ‘Speed Junkie’, ‘Satan’s Bitch’ and ‘Hellish Rock ‘N’ Roll’, these scurrying warlocks don’t leave anything to the imagination.

Louder lay their brand of spite metal out on the alter alongside a bloodied dagger, black candles and spell book as they march through the early-to-mid 80s thrash metal catalogue, often stopping off at early Slayer, Celtic Frost, Venom and the South American underground, while not forgetting a rusty blast of Teutonic fury. Buy this album in 1984 and you’ll forever worship at its gates, but time machines don’t exist so just accept the nostalgic vim and grab a few beers for the ride.

The closing title track is my favourite heap; it boasts a cavernous vocal snap as if main man Hellgröwler has fallen into a garbage can. It’s a mob mentality from the pack as with primitive rawness they ramble through 30 minutes of raucous, uncompromising speed metal.

These are the kind albums which don’t necessarily require reviews because the song titles, cover art and band photos do the talking, but as I’m here we may as well talk about opener ‘Speed Junkie’, a smorgasbord of early 80s bile, puss, blood and crack. The trio throws in a punchbowl concoction of Venom, Destruction, Sodom and Celtic Frost, a tried and trusted formula that has been spewed out of South America for decades.

Louder recycle old Slayer on ‘Satan’s Bitch’, the heady guitar work zipping from the plumes of choking smoke with unflinching hostility and blasphemous aplomb. Variety is scant, Louder are simply here to do the Devil’s work, epitomised by the Bathory speedball of ‘Louder Than Hell’. But if you are seeking something less spiky within the intoxicating clouds, then sleazy slice ‘Dirty Rocker’ will be right up your stinking alley. Mid-paced and chugging with grim know-how, it channels the latter day Darkthrone sound; the vocal is a snarl and the riff a nasty, oil-soaked traipse.

‘Heavy Metal Nights’ takes the early 80s Teutonic fizz and runs with it through grease ball graveyards, the guitar attack bringing that classic vicious speed metal assault to the fore, while ‘Metallic Overdose’ is as equally tyrannical, acting like a lethal speed-up version of both Venom and Celtic Frost.

I’ve reviewed a lot of hell born stuff like this over the years, but I see no decline in bands of this ilk emerging. Straight from the gutters of Lucifer’s backstreets, this is Colombian metal for the wired.

Neil Arnold

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