‘Singular power, invests in the game, Corrupt all involved to placate the dream, The history of need, conquer and greed, The power of plight, the power of need’ (The Power Of Plight)

‘We must work on something together’ is a phrase that must regularly punctuate a musician’s life – the ‘we must grab a beer soon’ of the creative life.  Just occasionally though, it gets acted upon.  In this instance, it was sparked by Andy Lefton (War//Plague) falling into conversation with Charlie Claeson (Anti Cimex) around the Anti-Cimex documentary, Jawbreaker.  Kelly Halliburton (Detestation) soon completed the instrumental ranks.

The result is a brutal, densely layered fusillade of metallic crust, buzzsaw guitars and a thunderous rhythm section in absolute lockstep.  Then, it was a question of who should take on the vocal duties.  The answer was not one but two vocalists, with Napalm Death’s Barney Greenway and Skitsystem’s Frederik Wallenberg being charged with dissection of a world at the mercy of oligarchical greed and political complicity.

Greenway takes on the duties for side one and is in truly imperious form.  After all these years, the sheer physicality of his delivery is hard to rationalise.  It sounds as if every sinew of his being is being channelled into his vitriolic roar.  The sheer velocity put me rather in mind of Mass Appeal Madness-era Naplam Death, with Dead Legacy arguably the stand-out of ‘Side Barney’.

Wallenberg takes up the vocal reins on the flipside and brings his own rabid stamp to proceedings – less densely layered yet brimming with ferocity.  Totalis, however, still have one trick up their sleeve as Hanna Stjernlöf (Dishumanitär) brings an utterly barbarous dimension to the highlight of ‘Side Freddie’, Control The Narrative.