At some point, the word “straightforward” doesn’t encapsulate enough in a given scenario. There are plenty of times when we’re faced with death metal that cannot be called anything other than straightforward for how loyal the material can sound to the original roots of the style itself while never really deviating from that path for one reason or another, but there has to be something said for those that break their death metal down what feels like another notch somehow. That’s not to say we’re faced with something that’s frustratingly basic or outright formulaic, but, rather, something that acts as a pure vessel of death, and destruction, and embodies the very flames that it leaves in its wake with nothing less than absolute annihilation to be found between its riffs and raw power. In the simplest of words, that’s what Toughness brings forth for their formidable debut effort.

Such a creation is a difficult thing to pull off without the end result coming out viciously boring. How one could contort such a concept such that the ensuing material doesn’t all sound virtually the exact same with naught but the slightest deviations to be from one song to the next is something that is beyond lost on someone like me, which makes witnessing a band like Toughness pull it off feel endlessly fascinating. Even ignoring the fact of this being the first proper album that this quartet has put out so far, all that was put forth in the ten tracks of “The Prophetic Dawn” are such that this intensity should not be hailed as anything less than utterly bludgeoning. This is not death metal that has any sort of meaningful or shiny production quality that went into bringing it to life – no! Rather than a sleek sword that gets the job done quickly with a swift slash to the chest or neck, all that Toughness delivers in this effort can only be likened to that of a rusty, battle-worn axe that refuses to cleave cleanly and leaves the victim sputtering blood instantly to have an agonizingly slow and painful slip into the afterlife. There isn’t a single moment of this album that is made to make it an easy experience whether it be the bleak cover art or the raw nature of all that Toughness manages to bring to the table in horrifying fashion with the very end of this onslaught being no less than a vicious boot stomp to the skull that sprays shards of bone and leaves a pulpy puddle of blood in its midst, all before Toughness moves onto the next murder scene to continue the terror of “The Prophetic Dawn”.

This is the exact kind of bottom-dwelling death metal that the underground is all but made for. You can’t find this anywhere other than the pulsing floor of the underground itself with only the most jaded of veterans able to stomach what a creation like this is able to summon forth on what’s just its debut assault, and Toughness does nothing less than dominate right from the beginning. By the end of it all, you come to realize that “The Prophetic Dawn” is all but the perfect title for this is just the very start of what Toughness is capable of with it being all but truly prophetic, surely.

“The Prophetic Dawn” releases on September 9th via Godz ov War Productions!

LISTEN to an advanced track from “The Prophetic Dawn” on Bandcamp here, or via YouTube below.

LIKE Toughness on Facebook here.