Album review: Death Pill – Death Pill

Death Pill are intensely furious. There is nothing on the Ukrainian trio's debut that isn't seething with anger, or delivered with boiling vitriol. And it was made before their neighbours to the East mounted an unprovoked and illegal attack on their homeland. A caustic mix of hardcore, thrash and punk, the band play like they've got one hand in a plug socket and the other balled up into a fist, not stopping for breath as they throw out nine songs in 23 minutes.

Opening track Dirty Rotten Youth is a riot of speed and screaming from Mariana Navrotskaya, Miss Revolt is 88 seconds of speedy hardcore rage, and the thrashing Kill The Traitors sounds like Kreator's bratty kid sisters. It's viscerally thrilling and completely brilliant.

But it's what Death Pill do around it all that buttresses this album into something creatively more than just a primal scream of anger. Die For Vietnam throws in a huge, melodic, shout-along chorus, It's A Joke has shades of Bikini Kill, and the righteous Go Your Way, with its message of feminist solidarity, is a full-throttle anthem.

But angry it remains all the way through. And Death Pill, oddly, sound like they're having an awful lot of fun shouting about it. This absolutely rules. Take your medicine.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Black Flag, Trash Talk, Petrol Girls

Death Pill is released on February 24 via New Heavy Sounds

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