:: Various Artists - A Blaze In The Southern Skies

Various Artists

Although established a short six years ago, Western Australian label Prime Cuts Music has come one hell of a long way. Initially starting out exclusively with a host of local acts on their books, the label’s roster has grown to encompass a range of extreme metal bands from across the nation. With their growing success, Prime Cuts Music has partnered up with Soundworks Touring to put together a double album showcasing the best of what the Australian metal scene has to offer to the rest of the world. The first disc exclusively covers many of the acts that make up Prime Cuts Music’s vast roster. There’s plenty of variety on offer over the sixteen bands featured, covering genres such as heavy rock (Psychonaut – ‘Rosemary’s Baby’), melodic death metal (Pathogen – ‘Identity Theft’, Vespers Descent – ‘Reality Disfunction’ and Noctis – ‘Remembrance Of Death’), modern thrash/groove metal (Frankenbok – ‘Failure To Learn’ and Humonic – ‘The Prayer’), death/black metal (Grotesque – ‘Pulsating Cosmos’, Malignant Monster – ‘Drive The Nails’, The Furor – ‘Rebirth Mark’, Mytile Vey Lorth – ‘Caves Of Blood’ and Claim The Throne – ‘Triumphant March Of The Draconic Legion’), grindcore (Cuntscrape – ‘Cactus Sack’) and metalcore (Dyscord – ‘Senjo’ and Left Ablaze – ‘Step Inside’).

As a real bonus, there’s also a brand new track by recent Prime Cuts Music inductees Dawn Of Azazel (‘Fornication Revelation’) and the minor supergroup Human Extinction Project and their debut offering ‘Consequence (Thanks For Fuck All)’. On the Soundworks Touring side of the disc, the high standard and diversity is more than matched, with seventeen artists representing a host of genres and labels from across the country. Once again, there’s a mix of brutal death/black metal (Psycroptic – ‘Alpha Breed’, Terrorust – ‘Harvesting The Blood’, Ruins – ‘Suicidal Pulse’, Tzun Tzu – ‘Kunoichi’ and Guild Of Destruction – ‘Prey’), melodic death metal (8 Foot Sativa – ‘Emancipate’ and Be’lakor – ‘Neither Shape Nor Shadow’), thrash (Mortal Sin – ‘Tears Of Redemption’, Enlightened By Darkness – ‘Whitechapel 1888’ and Black Asylum – ‘Don’t Beg For Mercy’), metalcore (Picture The End – ‘They Swarmed Like Locusts’ and Double Dragon – ‘Dead But Still Killing’) and extreme/melodic progressive metal (Alchemist – ‘Tongues & Knives’, Chaos Divine – ‘Still Bleeding’, Five Star Prison Cell – ‘M’, Darkest Dawn – ‘Inflection In Bloom’ and Synthetic Breed – ‘Techno Sedation’).

Apart from leaning a little too much towards the heavier side of things rather than giving a real indication of what the Australian scene has to offer as a whole, ‘A Blaze In The Southern Skies’ is a truly ear gouging example of just how far the Australian extreme scene has come in recent years, and the perfect showcase of what they have to offer extreme metal fans the world over.