Terminal Nation – Echoes Of The Devil’s Den

In 2020 Little Rock, Arkansas-based combo Terminal Nation released their debut full-length Holocene Extinction. Since releasing the first album, the band’s current formation is Chase Turner (bass & vocals), Stan Liszewski (vocals), Tommy Robinson (guitar), Chase Davis (drums) & Dalton Rail (guitar), have only widened, improved and evolved on all levels, esp. lyrically and in terms of a songwriting. As evidenced on songs like “Embers of Humanity”, which injects an epic heavy metal flair within its balladry while building to stadium-esque crescend. Another stand-out track is the single “Merchants of Bloodshed”, the band splice in anthemic, bordering on radio-friendly clean singing courtesy of Jesse Leach (Killswitch Engage), just one of many guest vocal appearances on the album. Some of the other additional vocals are delivered by Todd Jones (Nails), K. Kennedy (Sex Prisoner), Zak Vargas (Elysia), Dwid Hellion (Integrity) while additional drums duties on tracks “Written By The Victor” and “Dying Alive” are done by Juan Cebreros.

The new album, Echoes of the Devil’s Den, contains 12 tracks in what I would call a blend of outrageously heavy mid-paced riffing, bulldozing breakdowns, venomous vocals and the very solid drum work. Lyrically, throughout Echoes of the Devil’s Den the quintet lash out with both the scathing societal critique for which they’re well known and also a more intimately reflective narrative that draws upon some massive personal upheavals endured in the preceding years. Sociatal critique is perfectly exemplified in a song called “No Reform (New Age Slave Patrol)” where band’s singer Stan Liszewski shouts ‘Fuck every fucking cop that’s ever fucking lived.’ As for the personal narative I find a song like “Dying Alive” with lyrical content ‘I can’t climb my way out, I’m buried faster than I can ever dig’. Furthermore this song relies on the monstorous groove and death/doom final part of the song. My personal favorite is the second track called “Written By The Victor” – mainly due to its ‘new wave of old-school death metal vibe’ featuring some deep and demonic vocals of the aforementioned Todd Jones (Nails), and some intense and safe drumming from Juan Cebreros. It’s accompanied by a nice breakdown and superb riffing throughout the song. Another one of my favorite songs is “Cemetery of Imposters”, being a short track (at under 3 minutes), but with a hook and a more hardcore approach in the additional vocals of K. Kennedy (Sex Prisoner).

Listening to Echoes Of The Devil’s Den is like expecting erupting volcano all the time as you never know what is to hit you next. It’s the biggest pro of this sophomore album, being varied and interesting, offering a few surprises along the way, successfully blending elements of epic heavy metal, venomous brutality of death metal, and boling rage and sociopolitical lyrics of hardcore.

Extreme metal music demands, and expects, extreme skills from producers and engineers. Echoes Of The Devil’s Den has been produced, engineered and mixed by Ryan Bram at ‘Homewrecker Recording Studio’ in Tuscon (Arizona) and all I can say is that the overall sound is fresh, modern and crispy, still achieving the required clarity and definition.

There’s this razor-thin line where punk/hardcore and death metal as the genres nowadays seems to dissolve into one another. There’s a ton of killer acts blending the genres together so fluently that they amalgamate into a head-spinningly heavy and unique fusion. I find Terminal Nation doing it very well, where this latest opus will only help them further establishing themselves as one of the leading and best acts on the scene.

In conclusion; I was pretty much excited about this follow-up to quintet’s critically acclaimed debut, and after three spins I can say that I’m not disappointed. Thus, if you’re fan of the likes of Bolt Thrower, Obituary, Earth Crisis, Xibalba, Kruelty, Gatecreeper, All Out War and similar hardcore/old-school death metal acts, then you should buy this essential record to your collection.

For additional information on this 12-tracker second album from Terminal Nation visit https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/echoes-of-the-devils-den