San Diego’s slam grind death act known as Suntorn brings forth the destruction with their debut album “The Will To Power”. Layered vocals of high registered torment and lower demonic death, guitar riffs tuned nice and low and ultra brutal, bass work that will create a menacing force of chaos and drumming so violent that it just seals the deal and makes it all official, Suntorn have released one of the heaviest albums of this genre. Mike O’Hara (Splattered Entrails) lays down the filthy riffs and puts some leads and diddles over them that is different from his other work. While you can definitely tell it’s O’Hara on that axe, you can enjoy something slightly different. When it comes to the vocals I cannot tell if it’s Peter Sliwinski doing all of the work or if Mike or Greg is helping, if that is Peter doing all of the work then holy fucking monkey balls does he have a wide range!!! He has three main vocal registers, a low but throaty death metal growl, a high registered scream that is still raw as hell and an even higher registered primal scream. There are 2 other vocal styles I notice and that is the ultra low guttural grunting and something close to that but more pig squealish than anything. The drumming from T-Rex is so damn precise and brutal, it’s almost unreal. If it’s programmed, it’s done so very very well. If this is a legit kit, then T-Rex is one of the best drummers out there. Ultra fast blasts, tempo changes, crushing breakdown drum patterns and nothing but balls out playing. Suntorn come together and put out one hell of an album. “The Will To Power” is not for the weak.

The album as a whole is just cruel. Your neighbors will hate you, your co-workers will wonder what is wrong with you and your family will begin to question where they went wrong with you. The animosity and intensity of the album combined with Peter’s ferocious vocals just will intimidate and scare anyone who hears this. To me, this is damn good. Just the perfect amount of groove, grind, death, slam, high vocals and low growling….Suntorn know how to put things together and not overdo something. Each track is a headbanger’s dream: filled with slow anthems, fast whirlwinds of riffs and slamming elements that will make a novice headbanger have a sore neck the next day. A very unorthodox album in terms of structure and a “give no fucks, just kill” mentality make “The Will To Power” one of the heaviest hitting albums of the year.

There is no clean singing, there are no generic “deathchug” breakdowns, there is even a special grindcore guest vocalist on the last song that just makes your skin crawl, there is no repetitiveness of the album and “The Will To Power” flows together from front to back very fluidly. The rolling riff and drumming of the song “Catastrophobia” just is one of the perfect examples that not all metal needs to be hyper technical to be damn good. Find a groove, make it heavy and nail it. Suntorn just delivers and it makes “The Will To Power” fun to listen to. This is one hell of a debut album and they are truly ahead of their peers when it comes to just being this murderous right out of the gate. Very few bands can pull off such an album and these guys got it on their first try.

4.5 out of 5

I’m fortunate enough to be able to share the album with you. Download Suntorn’s “The Will To Power” HERE!!! Enjoy.