Richard HolmesOxygen Destroyer – Guardian of the Universe (Redefining Darkness Records)
It’s been a great summer for Kaiju-themed metal.
Scratch that. It’s been the best.
French titans Gojira – whose name is Japanese for Godzilla – stunned a worldwide audience when they stomped all over the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony. For the metal community, it was like winning a gold medal.
And now we have Oxygen Destroyer’s third full-length to feast on. Taking their moniker from a ‘zilla slaying device, the US crew set their stall out with 2015’s Brutal Thrashing Kaiju Metal demo, and really arrived with their formidable 2018 debut album, Bestial Manifestations of Malevolence and Death.
Will Guardian of the Universe see the quartet soundtracking the LA Olympics in ‘28? Will they be performing Eradicating The Symbiotic Hive Mind Entity From Beyond The Void to an audience of elite archers and supercharged sprinters? It’s unlikely. But Oxygen Destroyer have nevertheless hit on a winning formula this time around… and their irradiated death thrash is ready to flatten cities.
Oxygen Destroyer unleash the beast
Oxygen Destroyer have evolved since 2020’s Sinister Monstrosities Spawned by the Unfathomable Ignorance of Humankind. Whatever gamma rays they’ve been exposed to have taken effect.
Yes, those frenetic sensory assaults remain… but there’s even more urgency to the band’s attack this time around, and a greater focus: Drawing Power From The Empathetic Priestess Of Tranquility, for instance, is a pinpoint strike, reminiscent of early Sodom or Kreator in its unhinged ferocity. Confidence oozes from the track. It’s the work of a band who’ve honed their songwriting without sacrificing what made Bestial Manifestations so powerful.
Guardian of the Universe also benefits from a much improved production job: Lord Kaiju and Joey Walker’s riffs have the sonic depth to match their muscularity; the solos are allowed to blaze away in all of their chaotic glory; and Chris Craven’s fusion reactor kitwork gets the love it deserves. It’s a major step up for Oxygen Destroyer. They’re supposed to sound like this.
Yes, there’s very little variation across the record. The pace is relentless. Occasionally, you wish the band would burrow into a groove for a little while longer. But with songs like blastwave thrasher Thy Name Is Legion or the Vader-esque Banishing The Iris Of Sempiternal Tenebrosity, in their armoury, Oxygen Destroyer are unleashing mass destruction, kaiju-style.
Just watch them rise.
Band photo by John Malley.
