{"id":105085,"date":"2025-05-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=105085"},"modified":"2025-07-08T16:54:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:54:47","slug":"ep-review-whipstriker-venomwolf-grave-altar-flagelador-four-band-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/ep-review-whipstriker-venomwolf-grave-altar-flagelador-four-band-split\/","title":{"rendered":"WHIPSTRIKER \/ VENOMWOLF \/ GRAVE ALTAR \/ FLAGELAD\u00d6R – Four Band Split EP (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHIPSTRIKER \/ VENOMWOLF \/ GRAVE ALTAR \/ FLAGELAD\u00d6R
\nFour Band Split EP<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nVicious Witch (2025)<\/span>
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Nik at Vicious Witch Records has been spitting out some great metal over the years. He\u2019s always had a thirst for promoting a lot of blackened speed metal and with this devilish four way split EP there\u2019s more billowing rust to inhale. Two of the bands here \u2013 Whipstriker and Flagelad\u00f6r \u2013 hail from Brazil and dish up fully spiked speed metal. Meanwhile, the other two acts \u2013 Venomwolf and Grave Altar \u2013 are from the UK, and again they tend to veer towards blackened styling.<\/p>\n

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 \u2018Landmine Dance\u2019 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<\/em> compilation albums. There\u2019s a cavernous drunken drool to the vocals and an archaic clank to drum and riff, but it\u2019s the ideal starter if you want to be dragged into the bowels of Hell.<\/p>\n

As equally primitive, but strikingly faster, is Scotland\u2019s Venomwolf, the brainchild of Glaswegian Duncan McLaren. If Whipstriker were the revving engines of Hell\u2019s Angels, then Venomwolf\u2019s \u2018Deathwalker\u2019 is satanic speedway action. It\u2019s 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\u2019s still time for a wild solo that\u2019ll leave scorch marks on the bed sheets, but such a riotous affair is certainly welcome.<\/p>\n

Next up is England\u2019s Grave Altar who impressed at the beginning of the year with their sophomore outing Shrines Of Hatred<\/em><\/a>. Here, the trio serves up \u2018Infernal Command\u2019, a strong effort as expected that begins with a classic thrash chug before you\u2019re 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<\/a> and Sodom fused with a very early Onslaught with a South American topping.<\/p>\n

Flagelad\u00f6r round off this EP with \u2018Encarna\u00e7\u00e3o do mal\u2019. 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\u2019s mainly down to the yappy vocal snaps, although the vocals also drift into deeper gasps for air and gruff yelps. It\u2019s speedy and raw but quite fitting, so hats off to whoever\u2019s idea it was to collate these four acts.<\/p>\n

Well established bands they all may be, but if you\u2019re unfamiliar with this quartet of screaming clanking banshees then what better way to be introduced than with this here split project.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WHIPSTRIKER \/ VENOMWOLF \/ GRAVE ALTAR \/ FLAGELAD\u00d6R 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\u2019s always had a thirst for promoting a lot of blackened speed metal and with this devilish four way split EP there\u2019s more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5934,5858,5933,5879],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-flagelador","category-grave-altar","category-venomwolf","category-whipstriker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105085"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105092,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105085\/revisions\/105092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}