Review: “Unslayable” by Tyrannus

“The vision we set is complete, Unslayable is an album which takes our eclectic influences and warps them into a conceptual story with themes of existentialism, Lovecraftian horror and antifascism. We want anyone who listens to this album to find something of themselves in it. With every fibre of our beings, we believe in the music we have made and are looking forward to finally sharing our fully realised vision with everyone” ~ Callum John Cant

Recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered by Scott McLean at La Chunky Studios between October 2021 and January 2022, “Unslayable” marks the highly anticipated debut full length album from Scottish Blackened Death Metal outfit Tyrannus, who earned the use of that often over used phrase thanks to a three track demo released in 2021 titled “It Taketh” that was so well received it was later released on cassette via True Cult Records. That was the culmination of three years of endeavour from multi instrumentalist and main song writer Callum John Cant (guitars, bass, vocals) and Alasdair Dunn (drums, percussion) who galvanised by the response enlisted Fraser Gordon (guitars) and Alistair Harley (bass, synth, backing vocals) in order to play the recordings live before re-recording the cuts from the demo alongside five fresh pieces to forge a seamless blend of Thrash infused Death Metal with elements of Psychedelic and Post-Black Metal.

The black swirling uneasiness of instrumental opening “A Cruel Dream” is the foreboding atmospheric of a classic horror film that tells you that something is about to happen and it’s going to be anything but good, like soundscape of accompany the classic shots of James Caan driving through a blizzard at the start of Misery. That bleeds through the bandages into “A Worse Reality” with Cant’s scalding Black Metal inspired vocals cutting against the guitars like a hot knife through butter and while the drums are perhaps lower in the mix than they could be, the Jazz inspired moments in “The Flood” echo the work of bands like Rivers Of Nihil and Revocation to create a stunning moment of majesty before the Extreme Metal rampage cuts free and tears loose. In similar fashion, the dark and gloomy “It Taketh” has a mid song melodic drop before transitioning to a venomous finale but there is no formula at work here as the craftsmanship of the material shows. Instead these are simply a pair that interlock like jigsaw pieces or deformed conjoined twins, forever in each others gaze, inspired by bands of the late 80’s and early 90’s to channel an Old School evil sound. The blood curdlingly eerie second instrumental of the record “Lake of the Undying” is as foreboding as the first with the Analogue synths providing a space like quality that echoes the 1979 soundtrack to Alien, the chest bursting moment coming with the album title track. A ferocious ripper of a cut that transcends from Thrashier riffs through Black Metal blast beats in bone breaking fashion into another majestic solo accompanied by Gollum esq shrill vocal roars, it’s a tour de force of swirling violence that comes to a tornado of a crescendo with some glorious whammy bar moments. There is no doubt that across the bands work Cant’s vocals have improved with his scathing tones finding new lows as he finds his voice, “Light of the Last Sun” being his finest performance on the record with some extra grit and determination providing for a viciously ferocious and gnarled performance and he carries that into the grand finale of “Break the Will of Evil” which is the perfect ending to an album of classic horrors [7.5/10]

Track listing

1. A Cruel Dream
2. A Worse Reality
3. The Flood
4. It Taketh
5. Lake of the Undying
6. Unslayable
7. Light of the Last Sun
8. Break the Will of Evil (ft. Amaya López-Carromero)

“Unslayable” by Tyrannus is out 22nd April 2022 via True Cult Records with pre-orders available over at bandcamp