Hungary’s Turbowitch delivers a booze-soaked, punk-infused brand of Black/Speed Metal that proudly rides the same leather-clad motorcycles as Midnight, Hellripper, and Bewitcher. Born in the subterranean gutters of Budapest, these guys have built their name on raw energy, chaotic live shows, and unapologetic 80s extreme metal worship.
What’s up, speed freaks. Grab a cheap beer and pull up a barstool, because we need to talk about Hungary’s finest merchants of filth, Turbowitch. Their third full-length, ‘Under Haunted Skies’, just dropped via Time To Kill Records, and if you’ve got even a passing affinity for spiked leather and whiplash-inducing riffs, you’re going to want to spin this until your neck snaps.
Right out of the gate, after the eerie and sinister intro of ‘Evoker of the Twilight’, this album kicks the double doors open and doesn’t bother taking names. We are immediately thrust into ‘Markolab’, a track that basically gives you the blueprint for the next half hour: unrelenting d-beats, blackened thrash chaos, and an absolutely foul attitude. The real scene-stealer here is the bass tone from new recruit Välde. In a subgenre where the low-end usually gets completely buried under a wall of chainsaw distortion, his bass sounds utterly phenomenal, thick, punchy, and driving the rhythm section like a Mack truck with cut brakes. It adds a filthy layer of grime to the production that many of their contemporaries severely lack.
Vocally, Zslöd sounds like he’s gargling broken glass and rotgut whiskey. It’s that classic, throaty, phlegm-driven attack that fits perfectly over the dual-guitar assault from Kommandante Klit and Mr. Fireball. The guitar work throughout ‘Under Haunted Skies’ is an absolute masterclass in sleaze. They aren’t trying to out-tech anyone; instead, they focus on maximum velocity and punk-fueled aggression. Take a track like ‘Highways of Death’, they literally mimic motorcycle engines with their guitars before launching into a mesmerizing, whammy-abusing solo. It’s pure, unabashed Heavy Metal worship. When they drop into ‘Moshpit at the End of the Day’, the tempo locks into this punishing, stomping groove that is scientifically designed to cause pit violence. Drummer Botond Kasper keeps the whole chaotic mess from derailing with precision blasts and frantic, tumbling fills.
Now, if I have to offer a constructive critique, it’s that Turbowitch isn’t exactly rewriting the sacred texts of extreme metal here. ‘Under Haunted Skies’ wears its influences so heavily on its sleeve that it flirts with being bog-standard. If you’re looking for genre-bending innovation or paradigm-shifting progressive structures, you came to the wrong dive bar. Because they rely so heavily on a relentless pace, a couple of the mid-album tracks can bleed into one another, coasting on similar tempos and chord progressions without doing much to stand apart.
But honestly? Who cares. When a band executes the Blackened Speed Metal formula with this much conviction, blistering musicianship, and infectious energy, they don’t need to reinvent the wheel—they just need to keep the wheel spinning at 200 miles per hour. At the end of the day, ‘Under Haunted Skies’ is a volatile, unrepentant assault that brilliantly captures the explosive live energy Turbowitch has been bringing to stages alongside bands like Deströyer 666 and Enforcer. It’s fast, it’s loud, and it’s meant to be played at max volume with your degenerate friends.
