Review of Kerasphorus - Cloven Hooves at the Holocaust Dawn EP

So early 2010 saw the release of two post Order From Chaos Projects- the first being the longer running Ares Kingdom and their second full length album and this debut EP from Kerasphorus which is the project that features Pete Helmkamp, also of a little band called Angelcorpse.

It looks like a name change and label change has helped Helmkamp revitalize after 2007s lackluster Of Lucifer and Lightning, even though these four blistering tracks could fall under the Angelcorpse moniker proudly; blistering but raw black death metal that’s relentless, evil and old school in its gravelly, blackened death goodness.

Aiding Helmkamp is drummer J Read, who Helmkamp has served with in Canadian act Revenge, so if you needed any further proof of the sound Kerasphorus is plying, you probably should not bother with this EP as its eighteen minutes of throat slicing blasphemy is succinct and effective. The only remote form of respite is the starting rumble of opener “The Abyssal Sanhedrin” which soon careens into familiar Angelcorpse territory with the other three tracks (notably second track “Aesoth Paradigm” and thisrd track “Disturb the Furthest Stars”) following suit with venomous aplomb and skin peeling tenacity that was lacking from the last Angelcorpse record.

In my opinion though only an EP, Kerasphorus’ debut is a slightly better release than the more thrashy and old school (though still enjoyable) Ares Kingdom release, Incendiary and shows that Helmkamp has some spite left in him after all these years.