‘Colonize the promised land just to exploit it all again, Expiration of us all, Infrastructures collapse and fall, Awaken celestial bodies, It’s a planned obsolescence, Fetish of commodity, We’re all just orbital debris terraforming galaxies for the gods of industry’ (Prison Planet BIOS-4)

Phase IV sees the rampaging return of Wiccans.  It tells the story of a world where people are mere units of productivity.  Where technology is used to surveil and polarise those same people.  Where morally and intellectually bankrupt notions of austerity and trickle-down economics are the unchanging rationality.  Where a planet is subject to extraction so rapacious that it is hurtling towards catastrophe.

This is the Texan band’s first album since 2017’s Sailing A Crazy Ship.  Ever since they released their first demo back in 2009, they have been forging their own very singular, restlessly writhing path.  All the core essentials of a fine hardcore record are evident in abundance, yet each is given its own intriguing accent, and the deftness of the songwriting dictates that rarely are they deployed quite when and how you might expect.

The clean toned guitars are tensely abrasive yet underpinned with a gratifying, almost metallic muscularity.  The rhythm section segues from the loosely limber to the frenetically vehement with seamless ease.  The solos recklessly squall into life yet evolve into catchily melodic exhortations.  The gruffly barked vocals provide a binding constant as they contemplate our increasingly dystopian future.  The highlights slam home with impressive regularity.  From the absolutely savage riff that defines the latter half of Crucifixion to the stomping rhythms of Primordial Sorcery, and from the forlorn motif melody of Prison Planet BIOS-4 to the freakishly unhinged In Pandemonium, this is a blistering return.