The Chicagoland area has certainly been home to many a great metal band over the years. Trouble, Master, Macabre and Cianide have paved the way for newer bands Nachtmystium, Cardiac Arrest and Bones. Add to the list of quality metal bands from the Midwest’s greatest city, Terminate, who hail from the northwest suburb of Morton Grove.

Their debut long player was recently unleashed upon the metal world and by all accounts it’s everything a death metal fan could ask for. Sporting a grimy, raw production that easily could be from 1990, Ascending to Red Heavens is what any fan of old school death metal looks for. Whether the quartet is shredding along at blazing speeds or slowly crushing the listener to a pulp, Terminate has taken their time in creating actual songs within the mayhem.

Taking their cues heavily from the likes of early Entombed and vintage Celtic Frost as well as American staples Autopsy, Repulsion and early Master, Ascending to Red Heavens is a throwback to the glory days of Crystal Pepsi and Hotwheels Cereal. While the idea of turning back the clock to emulate what has been done to death is nothing new, especially in death metal these days, Terminate handle the duties better than most.

Terminate sticks to what works for them; they take a great riff, structure a song around it, and never try to get fancy with all sorts of musical finesse or unnecessary technical chops. They take the meat and potatoes approach, keep things simple and just jam out kick ass death metal the way it was meant.

There’s no doubt that if this album had been released around the same time as Left Hand Path, Severed Survival and Onward to Golgotha, it would be heralded as an old school classic. The lousy part about all this is that Terminate could get lost in the shuffle of the over-saturated market of neo death metal bands doing the same exact thing. It’s a pity, too, because these Illinois lads terminate virtually all of their competition. Hayo!

[Visit the band's website]

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