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Starting out with a battering ram provided by ludicrous drum work by Max Kolesne, the assault turret, Scourge of the Enthroned shows why these guys are at the top of the food chain when it comes to old-school sounding Death Metal. Pummeling away with rage and anger, the trio continues the bloodbath with "Demonic III," which is the song that conceptually connects the album artwork—provided by none other than Eliran Kantor (Testament, Hate Eternal, Sodom)—to the album itself. Heavier and slower than the first track, it’s a statement that the three demons are in better shape than ever.

The guitar leads and the overall instrumental choices in the album could be mirrored by what was done by the band on albums such as Apocalyptic Revelation (1998) and Conquerors of Armageddon (2000), in the sense that the old-school aura and the rawer, unbounded playing is favored over technicality; this is specially transparent in "Devouring Faith" and "A Thousand Graves", for instance.

"Slay the Prophet" shows the heathen side of Krisiun as a toned down and heavy as fuck experience. There’s that clear Deicide vibe here which is constant in Krisiun releases, and while Moyses keeps the guitar to minimalistic notes in the leads and Alex provides back support with compact bass lines, Max steals the show once again with thunderous and forceful drumming.

The annihilation continues with "Electricide" this time around with more prominent riffs and even more evil gutturals by Alex. The breakdown on this particular track will please purists and avant-gardes alike, and the solo here is absolutely killer. In fact, all the solos in the record are probably their best since Southern Storm (2008).

When "Abysmal Misery (Foretold Destiny)" comes in, you’re already so jacked up that reason has left you long ago and you just want to destroy everything in your way, so the song helps you out with that. While the double pedal and the rhythm parts are almost static—changing only in the second verse—the guitar is once again the best asset here, reminding the good old days of Vader and Bolt Thrower.

After all the cruelty, visceral passages, blast beats and overall badassery, you’d think that the last song would be something more cadenced, fit to close the curtains in a less chaotic way, but hey, this is an old-school Death Metal album, and damn if Krisiun wouldn’t close it in the most brutal way possible. "Whirlwind of Immortality", best song of the album, is full of pace changes and calamitous speed, trademarks of the band. Evoking the ancient deities Annunaki (featured in the cover), the track is an ode to putrefaction, blasphemy and the apocalypse.

Scourge of the Enthroned is a significantly better effort than its predecessor Forged in Fury (2015). One of my (few) complaints about Krisiun’s last entry was the long length, and this time around they’ve properly made the album leaner (38 minutes) and with a better sense of urgency; highly recommended.