When I was a kid, old Godzilla movies used to play on the television Saturday afternoons, the grainy Japanese movies both capturing my imagination and scaring the shit out of me because what if a kaiju rose and destroyed my town? As I got older, I continued to enjoy these tales of great beasts even as a lot of the newer movies were diminishing returns.
Pacific Northwest death metal monsters Oxygen Destroyer, named after the weapon that killed Godzilla in the original 1954 film, took their love of kaiju films even further by using them as an influence for their records. Their latest and third long player is “Guardian of the Universe,” the subtitle for the initial film of the Gamera trilogy, released in 1995. This nine-track, 33-minute beast follows the events of each of the three pictures, the other two being “Attack of Legion” in 1997 and “Revenge of Iris” in 1999. The band—vocalist/guitarist Lord Kaiju, guitarist Joey Walker, bassist Paul Wright, drummer Chris Craven—pours their volcanic best into this record, ripping through you like a gigantic monster hellbent on tearing every building in their reach into a hellish pit of destruction.
“Guardian of the Universe (The Final Hope)” begins as terror strikes, the band thrashing viciously and leaving bruises, howls rippling through the earth. The playing turns vicious and furious, mangling and leaving blows, the growls pummeling as the final moments tear flesh. “Drawing Power from the Empathetic Priestess of Tranquility” starts as Gamera wails, the playing pulverizing as the punishment is turned up to insane levels, the playing spattering as the soloing scorches, and a blinding solo brings this shorter cut to an end. “Shadow of Evil” crunches as the band mounts a death attack, coming unhinged as the devastation spreads. The playing tears limbs from bodies, the guitars exploding with menace as the final moments utterly flatten. “Thy Name is Legion” is speedier as the playing slashes, mauling as total demolition arrives, stomping and charging through thrashy fire. The leads blaze as the growls intensify, creaking as the playing tears guts out of midsections with no mercy at all.
“Eradicating the Symbiotic Hive Mind Entity from Beyond the Void” is heavy, fast, and chunky, howls wrenching muscles as the violence steadily increases. The heat intensifies as does the tempo, with everything cosmically sucked into the void. “Nightmarish Visions of the Devil’s Envoy” is another quick one, unloading with volcanic fury, the guitars glazing as a thrashy assault flexes, ravaging to a sudden death. “Awaking the Malevolent Destroyer of the Heavens and Earth” opens with a clip from “Revenge of Iris” before the punishment gets under way, gurgly growls bubbling to the surface as the journey enters hyper speed, smashing with melodic devastation, the gears grinding to a mechanical end. “Banishing the Iris of Sempiternal Tenebrosity” stomps, shrieky howls lacerating, the leads spiraling dangerously. Things turns uglier, fires spitting, monstrous howls lashing away, bleeding out into an energy field. “Exterminating the Ravenous Horde of Perpetual Darkness and Annihilation” closes the journey, unloading with a burly attack, melodies ravaging as the guitars turn toward technical fireworks. Shrill shrieks send chills down your spine, beastly cries ravage, and digital corrosion consumes everything whole.
You don’t need to have seen the Gamera trilogy for “Guardian of the Universe” to have a smashing impact on you, as Oxygen Destroyer have a way of making their metallic force pummel you no matter what. But you’ll get a little more out of the hidden gems on the record, and the skull-splitting bursts woven into the songs will hit that much harder. Either way, this is a giant serving of thrash-infested death metal that is kaiju sized and promises to level everything within your grasp.
For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/KaijuConjuringDeathMetal
To buy the album (U.S.), go here: https://redefiningdarkness.8merch.us/
Or here (rest of the world): https://redefiningdarkness.8merch.com/
For more on the label, go here: https://www.redefiningdarkness.com/
Meat Mead Metal 