Band:	Oxygen Destroyer
Album:	Guardian Of The Universe
Style:	Death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	August 2024
A review by:	AndyMetalFreak

01. Guardian Of The Universe (The Final Hope)
02. Drawing Power From The Empathetic Priestess
03. Shadow Of Evil
04. Thy Name Is Legion
05. Eradicating The Symbiotic Hive Mind Entity From Beyond The Void
06. Nightmarish Visions Of The Devil’s Envoy
07. Awaking The Malevolent Destroyer Of The Heavens And Earth
08. Banishing The Iris Of Sempiternal Tenebrosity
09. Exterminating The Ravenous Horde Of Perpetual Darkness And Annihilation

The fight of the Kaiju gets all the more ferocious, as the universe is now at stake!

Oxygen Destroyer is definitely an interesting band name, but so too is this band's style, which blends the genres death and thrash in the heaviest and most ferocious way possible. Oxygen Destroyer have released 4 full-length albums since their formation a decade ago in 2014, including the latest offering, Guardian Of The Universe. With an unchanged foursome featuring founding members Lord Kaiju (guitars/vocals) and Joey Walker (guitars), along with Chris Craven (drums) and latest edition Paul Wright (bass), this album promises to be the band's longest, heaviest, and most aggressive release to date.

The album's theme is an obvious reflection of the Japanese Kaiju-based cover art (depicting what looks like a brutal and savage battle between a giant reptilian, Godzilla-like creature fighting other gargantuan creatures), and the band's no-nonsense, breakneck, savage signature approach combining death, thrash, and (to a lesser degree) black also aligns with the album's theme, as you'll soon find out from the opening title track "Guardian Of The Universe (The Final Hope)". This opener may be short, but it throws you right into the midst of the album's chaotic soundscape. The guitar work from riffs to leads is simply relentless, and never once short of groove or ferocity, whether traditional or technical thrash, or blackened tremolos. Just to top it off, a powerful OSDM buzzsaw guitar tone shreds its way through the mix with devastating force, and this is all driven by an ultra-rapid rhythm section that sustains peak momentum throughout. Onto the vocals, they alternate continually between classic deep monstrous death growls and aggressive higher-pitched blackened shrieks, almost as if the vocalists are resembling a fiercely fought battle between two gargantuan beasts.

This approach is maintained through to the end of the album's 33-minute duration, but despite the songwriting proceeding in such a one-dimensional and repetitive manner, the level of groove remains a key factor, and the pure savagery and ruthlessness never really lets off steam at any point other than the occasional short cinematic narration, which are mostly taken from film samples along with special sound effects to set the album's Japanese Kaiju motion picture-themed soundscape in place. For me, the latter stages of the album contain the most memorable riff melodies, but this is also where the theme becomes most interesting, as it seems past the album's mid-way point the resistance are all set out on revenge, and fight back against the deadly Kaiju beasts that have been intent on destroying all within their path. The bands most closely resembling Oxygen Destroyer's style, for me, would be Vader, Kreator and Morbid Saint, but even a dose of all those bands doesn't equal the sheer level of ferocity and aggressive energy that Oxygen Destroyer possess here on Guardian Of The Universe.

Now, onto the several minor pitfalls. Firstly, due to the repetitive nature of the songwriting and short track lengths, you'll have a hard time distinguishing each song from the next, and with that it's difficult to pinpoint single standout moments, let alone songs. On the other hand, though, this may not necessarily be a pitfall as such to most listeners, as it helps keep the album's unrelenting momentum flowing. The main real issue for me, however, is as a result of having this on repeat listening (which is very hard not to), I feel as though I need to take some very strong painkillers to stop my head throbbing after all the manic headbanging. Sure, the album's a tad one-dimensional, but if it's no-nonsense, ferocious death/thrash with a sprinkle of black that's what you want, and if you're an extreme metalhead who happens to be a Japanese Kaiju nerd, then Guardian Of The Universe shouldn't be missed.