Berlin’s Terminal Filth and Seattle’s Axefear combine forces to unleash a split of bleakly apocalyptic stenchcore.

‘The soundless chant, Of the last harvest, The fading beat, Of a barren chest’ (The Last Harvest, Terminal Filth)

Side one sees Terminal Filth at the helm as they follow-up their 2024 EP, Traces Towards Oblivion.  Their first two tracks – The Last Harvest and Flesh Of The Abyss – remain rooted in driving metallic crust riffage and bruising rhythms, braided through with passages of doom-laden groove and flourishes of melancholic melody.  Meanwhile, the gutturally roared vocals, with their blackened tinge, contemplate a harrowing future of eternal war and climatic breakdown. The dungeon synth instrumental interlude of Prelude To The End then cleanses the palate before the swaggering closer, The Last Journey, which sees Janick of After The Bombs take over the vocals.

‘Beneath the reaper’s gaze, Perish as one, Master and slave, Dusk upon the age, Final march, Nothing shall remain’ (Omens Of Doom, Axefear)

The three tracks from Axefear seem likely to be their last as the band fractured during their European tour late last year.  If that proves to be the case, this isn’t a bad way at all to sign off.  Following on from their 2024 debut album, Prophetic End, they continue to hone a savagely bludgeoning blend of crust and death metal that brings to mind the earliest UK pioneers of stenchcore.  Imagine, perhaps, an unholy union of Deviated Instinct and In Battle There Is No Law-era Bolt Thrower and you won’t go too far wrong.  Beyond The Earth is relentless in its merciless intensity, before handing over to the utterly venomous riffage of Omens Of Doom as the thunderous vocals evoke a world shorn of hope. They then round things off with a cover of Repulsion’s Black Breath, taken from their sole album, 1989’s Horrified.