Terminal Nation – Echoes of the Devil’s Den
Release Date: 3rd May 2024
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Hardcore.
FFO: All Out War, Bolt Thrower, Earth Crisis, Maul, Xibalba, Kruelty, Fuming Mouth, Gatecreeper.
Review By: Eric Wilt
We in the music media are prone to use (and sometimes overuse) hyperbole in an effort to drive home a point. That’s why I’m stating up front that it is in no way hyperbole when I say that listening to Echoes of the Devil’s Den by Terminal Nation is exactly like being run over by a steamroller. To say that it is heavy is like saying the sun is warm. Made up of Chase Turner on bass and vocals, Stan Liszewski on vocals, Tommy Robinson on guitar, Chase Davis on drums, and Dalton Rail on guitar, Terminal Nation is the crossroads where hardcore meets death metal to create a musical concoction boiling over with heaviness and rage. Add to this the fact that the lyrics talk about real, timely issues, and you have an album that won’t be easily forgotten.
Filled to the brim with massive mid-paced riffs and ground shaking breakdowns, Echoes of the Devil’s Den was made to be listened to loud. I can only imagine how the crowds will demolish the bars that Terminal Nation takes their live set to. If you want a taste of how hard they go, look no further than the first two songs, the title track and Written by the Victor. Deftly mixing death metal riffs with hardcore chugging and mixing tempos from mid-paced to slow and doomy to up-tempo, Echoes of the Devil’s Den takes the listener to all of the places that that album goes. This is followed by Written by the Victor, which includes a breakdown that is likely to cause the walls to crumble at some of these older venues. While most of the songs on the album follow this same style, Terminal Nation does bring a couple other elements to the record. On the instrumental track Embers of Humanity, the guitars add some melodic soloing that is not heard elsewhere on the record, while the track after that, Merchants of Bloodshed, even brings in some clean singing courtesy of Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage. In addition to Leach, Terminal Nation is helped out on vocals by Todd Jones of Nails, K. Kennedy of Sex Prisoner, Zak Vargas of Elysia, and Dwid Hellion of Integrity.
Echoes of the Devil’s Den is the most fun you’ll have being bludgeoned over the head with a sledgehammer of death metal and hardcore. Massively heavy and unforgiving, the new album by Terminal Nation is one of the best records of its style that you’re likely to hear this year.
(4 / 5)
