As soon as you press play, your ears are graced with sweep picking and high intensity drumming. Yup, it’s a Dying Fetus album. They clearly let you know what you are in for within the first ten seconds of the album. The trio is back with another monster album also known as “Reign Supreme“. The technical death metal band pushes their limits once again, releasing another high quality album that keeps slam interesting and still gets respect and credit for being one of the best bands in the metal community. Trey Williams hyper speeds with his feet and hands are the star of the show really, while Sean Beasley and John Gallagher still push the limits with their frantic fretwork, I found myself mimicking Trey’s patterns and blasts more than anything. The entire album is crushingly heavily and with breakneck speeds and whiplash tempo changes…you’re in for a wild metal ride while listening to Reign Supreme.

Clocking in at just under 38 minutes, Reign Supreme offers the listener top notch metal from front to back. From the immediate introduction on “Invert The Idols” to the final track “The Blood Of Power“, you are into it the entire time. Riffs on tracks like “Second Skin” , “From Womb To Waste” and “Devout Atrocity” get stuck in your head for days. They are true headbangers and you will need to see a chiropractor if you have this turned up too loud. The leads from both Sean and John are impressive and fun to listen to. Each track has something special about it. The entire album flows quite well with an almost thrash style tempo that gallops from song to song. On the last album, each song had character. On this album, the entire thing has a better flow throughout. With that said, I prefer the each song having it’s own uniqueness to it. The album as a whole wasn’t as powerful or catchy.

Trey’s drumming was deadly on Reign Supreme. His blasts, patterns and double bass was mind blowing. At times he could just be in this slam groove, adding to the homicidal riff underneath it. Then all of a sudden there is an intense blast beat with furious double bass happening. It’s almost inhuman how fast he can get his kicks going. While I think his drumming has definitely stepped up on this album, I found the production on the drums to be a little off. While it’s not as powerful as the last album, it’s over the guitars a little too much in places. Gallagher’s vocals on this album were still as brutal as ever. His lows really have not diminished over the years at all. While some growls seemed a little off, he is pretty consistent throughout the course of the entire album. Sean’s mid-high range style sounds even better this time around, when Gallagher and Beasley combine their vocals it’s as if they came together to form this death metal deity who will destroy you with their voice.

Overall, if it ain’t broken…don’t fix it. Dying Fetus come back album after album with a similar sound each time. That’s what us fans want though. Some riffs, new leads to shit ourselves to and drumming that will knock your grandma on the ground. They truly stick to their guns and unleash hell on Reign Supreme. This album is merciless, it’s fast as fuck and it’ll make a long time fan once again happy with the outcome.

Pros: Same great taste, less filling – be prepared to headbang, play air guitar and air drums

Cons: Production seems weaker than previous album “Descend Into Depravity”

4.5 out of 5