The all-knowing Metal-Archives filed Combat Shrine under “Grindcore”. Although that is not entirely out of touch with reality, you’re doing this Finnish band short quite a bit. And not in the least place, the potential listeners are pretty misled. If you are expecting something in the line with either Napalm Death, Exhumed, Last Days Of Humanity or Anal Cunt you are definitely in for a surprise. Combat Shrine has way much more in common with Bestial Black/Death Metal than with anything else. That genre isn’t free of traces of Grindcore and Punk, but when ordering a hamburger at McDonald’s you are not eating a salad, even if there is a leaf of lattice on there, are you?
Okay, having set that straight, let’s now get to Combat Shrine’s debut demo ‘Extermination Initiation’. These five guys are cranking out five tracks in just under eight minutes so they don’t waste any time and clearly go for the throat right away. Still, the pace is rather dynamic going from slow and sluggish to fierce and powerful blasting parts, making the majority of this demo a rather dynamic affair – especially for Bestial/War Black/Death Metal standards. But, other than that, Combat Shrine has all the ingredients set for a rather by-the-books kind of Bestial Black Metal offering. Just to be clear here: that, for me, is by no means a disqualification. Quite on the contrary even, when things are done well, they are done well. You can just revel in grinding, lower-than-life riffs, caveman drumming and an overall very decent production which propels the music to higher levels of brutality.
The bludgeoning aggression that’s on display in which especially the rabid sounding vocals are worth an extra mention, will be right upon anyone’s alley who has a soft spot for bands like Abysmal Lord, Tetragrammacide and Proclamation. Too bad this demo only exists in digital form…
