Look, I love metal that makes me think and dream and wonder. Obviously I do since I talk about that stuff all the time. But now and again, I’d like to hear something that makes me want to slam a hammer through a plate glass window.

Yeah, OK, that’s a little easy. After all, we are talking about “Sentenced to Life,” the crushing new album by Black Breath, and on the cover is someone … slamming a hammer through a plate glass window. But whatever. When you hear this shit, that’s what it’ll make you want to do too, and the cover is even more awesome because it looks like an early ’80s thrash metal album. It’s such a simplistic idea, but it’s well executed and looks awesome. It’s my favorite cover art so far in this young year, and first time I saw it I decided if they made a T-shirt depicting the cover, I would buy it immediately. It’s currently hanging in my basement on the clothesline. Yes, I did hear the music on the new album before making such a purchase. I’m no blind rubber-stamper.

Black Breath have been making crusty, brutal, black metal-flavored, D-beat powered hardcore for the last six years now, and they’ve demolished everything in front of them on their debut EP “Razor to Oblivion” and their first full-length, 2010’s bad-ass “Heavy Breathing.” They were one of the first signings in Southern Lord’s recent shift toward signing more hardcore, Entombed/Slayer-worshipping bands, and so far, none of the other like-minded groups on the label have been able to stop this Seattle machine. A few have come close (Seven Sisters of Sleep, Nails), but these guys remain the nastiest of them all, and “Sentenced to Life” (a Kurt Ballou, Godcity production, thank you) is another masher that keeps these guys a step ahead of the pack.

The quartet – vocalist Neil McAdams, guitarists Eric Wallace and Zack Muljat, bassist Elijah Nelson, and drummer Jamie Byrum – sets hell and carnage into motion the second you press play on this 10-track, 33-minute killer. It is a relentless display, and while there isn’t anything on here that wonderfully perplexes you kind like “Unholy Virgin,” the package itself is stronger and more menacing than anything they’ve done before. It blasts by in the blink of an eye, and the band sounds tighter than ever. This stuff’s going to crush faces live.

We open with “Feast of the Damned,” a fast, violent cut that features McAdams howling, “Come to me my children, as a jackal to the lamb.” That means your blood is going to be digested. From there, we spill right into the obliterating title cut, with an accusatory chorus of, “Terrified of living, too scared to die”; “Forced Into Possession,” a short blast of volcanic madness; “Home of the Grave,” a sludgy, muddy  bludgeoning with some awesome lead guitar work; “Endless Corpse,” a cut that starts eerily enough before blowing open into a display of classic death metal prowess; “Of Flesh,” a stunning assault that’s both cold and calculating; “The Flame,” a crunchy, D-beat storm that stomps on your knuckles; and “Obey,” a doom-flavored, dual-guitar led finisher that caps things off nicely.

Black Breath have been climbing steadily since their first demo in 2006, and they’ve turned into one of the most formidable, dangerous bands around. So many people crowned “Heavy Breathing” as the best metal/hardcore record of 2010, and those who awarded that platter with that distinction likely will be blown to bits with “Sentenced to Life.” This band is a monster than cannot be held back, and there’s no telling how much damage they’ll do in the future.

For more on the band, go here: http://blackbreath.com/

To buy the album, go here: http://www.southernlord.com/store.php

For more on the label, go here: http://www.southernlord.com/