If you like your Thrash Metal raw and unrelenting, then look no further than the latest offering from Peru’s Maze Of Terror as they return with their second studio full length, Offer To The Fucking Beasts, follow up to 2016s Ready to Kill.
Maze Of Terror – Offer To The Fucking Beasts (Xtreem Music)
Release Date: 26 August 2021
Words: Jools Green
Style-wise, Maze Of Terror delivers a classic sound that epitomises raw, brutal South American Thrash, which errs towards no-frills lo-fi, concentrating on brutality, not polish. This is Thrash in its most primal and vital form.
Offer To The Fucking Beasts manifests as a ten-track forty-seven-minute, unrelenting Thrash-fest, delivered at breakneck speed with vitriolic intent and fittingly brutal lyrics that lean a little towards a Lovecraft theme at times.
With a high but acerbic vocal delivery, it is an album that if you like one track, you’ll like the lot as each track is delivered to the same consistent standard.
For me, two factors stand out across this release.
The drum work, which, given the speed of the riff delivery, the aptly named Hammer on drums, does an exemplary job at bringing depth and texture to the sound. This is particularly true on Blessed By Sickness And Death.
The second aspect is the leadwork, which is absolutely insane, with high-speed shreds breaking out of most tracks’ second half, particularly Priest Of The Ancient Ones, Angels Of Acid, Blood Horror Cult and No Requien For The Unborn.
As for favourite tracks, as I’ve already said, if you like one, you’ll like the lot, and I can’t single one track out, but I do have a couple that caught my ear a little more than the others—blessed By Sickness And Death for the previously mentioned slightly higher profile to the drum work and the abundance of well-varied riff patterns which weave through.
Also, Angels Of Acid, with its slower start gradually building in pace, a track that draws you in then keeps your interest with subtle riff repeats, a catchy chorus and a pace that ebbs and builds along with that previously mentioned stunning leadwork. And, A Millions Kills, which has a slightly slower pace and a hypnotically engaging quality to the riffs that draw you in.
Finally, No Requien For The Unborn. I absolutely love the riffs that dominate this track, which is completed by a huge swathe of searing lead work that almost seems to go on forever, hugely engaging.
All in all, a Thrash-tastic listen.
