Speedwhore - Visions Of A Parallel World - LP

SPEEDWHORE was formed in Munich by Tim Kuntze and Johannes Mikulits in 2006. What started as an alcohol-induced joke soon took its own course when, soon after, SPEEDWHORE had their first rehearsals with a quickly expanded lineup. Three demos followed (one unreleased) as well as two singles and constant gigs in the ever-thriving German underground. But it was the band’s debut album, The Future is Now – released in 2015 by the cult label Witches Brew – that truly put SPEEDWHORE on the metal map, featuring as it did an odd-yet-endearing mix of thrash, black metal, and traditional heavy metal. An EP and a split 7” followed before Tim moved to Berlin and revamped the band completely. With the lineup filled out by Alexander Pusch, Leonhard Link, and Marcel Cording, SPEEDWHORE started to have national and international gigs again, and this lineup released their first output on a tribute album to Japan’s legendary Sabbat as well as another split 7”. Road-tested by yet more gigs, the revamped SPEEDWHORE make their full-length debut with Visions of a Parallel World. At once sounding strikingly SPEEDWHORE and incredibly reinvigorated, the band’s second album takes that odd-yet-endearing mix to grander, grimier levels. On the surface, much of Visions of a Parallel World could soundtrack a heavy metal drinking party…but listen closely and one will detect unique twists of atmosphere and a more idiosyncratic approach to songwriting that jointly put SPEEDWHORE in a whole new realm (or a rarefied one populated by such idiosyncratic cults as fellow Germans Witching Hour or Slovenian labelmates VIGILANCE). The nine-song/39-minute album charges hard and charges in many directions, but always forward and abyss-ward, and the filth freely washes over you as a ghostly fog of ancient terror simultaneously casts its spell. The supremely grainy & old-school yet spacious production skillfully enhances this sensation and further lends an air of the archaic to proceedings, but rest assured that true HEAVY METAL physicality is present and accounted for. Call Visions of a Parallel World, then, a heavy metal drinking party where dread portals are also opened. Equally suited to the streets and castles, SPEEDWHORE fire up the motorbikes and evoke Visions of a Parallel World. Side A Matriarch / Lion's Gate / Clutch of the Sea / Hologram / Golgotha Side B Heir to the Ruby Thronec / Decrypted Prophecies / The Last Bulwark of Man / Visions of a Parallel World