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After the positive response to 2015’s debut album, A War Of Souls And Desire, this Brit quintet are suddenly gaining more eyes and expectation – and for the most part, their tech-death mixed with Pantera levels of aggression marks them out as an outfit to watch. Both the follow-up’s superb opener, The Minor Mystery Of Death, and Yawm al-Qiyamah offer as satisfyingly brutal a start as any album that you’ll hear in 2017, both coming across sounding like Psycroptic smashed on Crown Royal whisky. All signs point to another reason to be massively smug about the current UK metal scene. Krysthla, however, don’t quite manage to keep those standards up for the duration of the album. Within The Lie Of All Lies, for example, sounds like pure filler. The closing eight-and-a-half minute Eternal Oceans has more ambition than Krysthla are able to fulfil at present, but it does at least show plenty of room for growth. Not quite the finished article, then, but this is a band definitely worth checking back in on in the future.

Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.