December 2008 learned with bands like KATALYSATOR, GRAVELESS, BOMBS OF HADES, ENVENOMED, MIASMAL, DEGIAL, TRIBULATION, EVISCERATED and MORBUS CHRON (all new to me at that time) that the dusty Swedeath from Stockholm was heading for a second coming. Actually, old school Death Metal in general was on a comeback, hell yeah! Among these bands was one called BASTARD PRIEST, consisting of Inventor (guitars, bass and vocals) and Matt Mendoza (drums and vocals). Already founded in 2001, they waited for the right time to plunge their hammer into the underground. On their Myspace page were a few tracks posted of their demo “Merciless Insane Death” released in May 2008 and three tracks from a recording that was done in 2007 but officially never released. As Matt states about this: “The demo 2007 never existed! This is a common misunderstanding on the internet – we recorded 3 songs is 2007 (‘Blasphemy From Hell’, ‘Evil Pain’ and ‘Power Of Death’) but since we weren’t happy enough with the outcome we decided to regroup and record what came to be the 2008 demo. The recording from 2007 was up on our myspace music-player for a while and therefore people seem to think we have a release named “Demo 2007″ – truth is it’s more of a rehearsal-demo, and it was just for us in the band – we never made any tapes or CDRs that we gave out to friends, zines or labels.” So, that’s cleared for once and for all! The impact of all posted tracks was huge! Rotten, brutal and most of all convincing. They feel so genuine and pure that the spirit of 1987 – 1990 is in each and every note! It simply doesn’t get any better than this… With bands like BASTARD PRIEST the resurrection is most justified. After this demo it became silent for some time untill now! Their debut “Under The Hammer Of Destruction” is now available as CD on Pulverised Records and on vinyl on Blood Harvest Records and I definitely recommend this to fans of REPULSION, AUTOPSY, NIHILIST / old ENTOMBED, DISMEMBER, SLAUGHTER, REPUGNANT, newer outfits like MAIM, GRAVE MIASMA, TORMENTED, DEATH BREATH and even THRONEUM. The Death Metal on “Under The Hammer Of Destruction” is raw, straight forward (without blasting) but so utterly effective. In just under 34 minutes you’ll get 11 tracks, including the three re-recorded songs from 2007 and the complete “Merciless Insane Death” demo. The three new tracks ‘Visions Of Doom’, ‘Total Mutilation’ and ‘Chock’ show the band’s grown to an even better shape and BASTARD PRIEST still walk the path of Death like they’ve constructed it themselves. A few effectes and a bit more variation matured these tracks to the best you’ll be able to get these days on this field. Simply astonishing! The result is (one of) the best album(s) this year can offer. Personally, I think this is it and “Under The Hammer Of Destruction” is an instant classic. Check out www.myspace.com/bastardpriestsweden for more info and soundsamples and www.bloodharvest.se for your copy.