Metal Underground.com

Sheer brutality is what Midland, Texas’ Trench Warfare brings to the “Pervision Warfare” EP. One would expect nothing less from a band named Trench Warfare, a particularly grueling aspect of war. The music is grueling in its own right and the name denotes that the band plays war metal with Aussie black metal groups like Bestial Warlust in mind. Bestial is one of the adjectives the group uses to describe this music—a modifier I can’t dispute. It’s raw. It’s primal. It’s blackened to the core.

The guitars are thick like napalm. While much of the guitar play resembles old school bands like Beherit and Blasphemy, the tones aren’t quite as murky. That pure primal quality that pervades through each of the three tracks brings to mind those bands and “Perversion Warfare” is more straightforward blasting. In fact, the blasting element on the album really ties into death metal and grind with bands like Sarcofago in mind. There is a definite grind aesthetic in the fact that there are no grooves or melodies. It’s straight ahead, in your face, blasting.

Vocally, the band revisits the putrid projections of Arch Goat, Blasphemy, Beherit and even Impaled Nazarene. However, the vocals aren’t done in a puking fashion like Beherit. Still, the shouted resonance brings to mind the bands mentioned above. While there aren't a lot of effects used, there are occasional nightmarish echoes and pitch-shifted voices. In a sense, the vocals are more of an instrument in that the lyrics can't be made out.

“Perversion Warfare” has enough in common with war bands and bestial black metal that fans of those sounds should really get into the album. It is no rip-off of those bands, though, as Trench Warfare has it's own take on these styles. If you like your music brutal, primal and unrelenting, check out “Perversion Warfare.”