01. Dyrr02. Primal Pulse Thunder03. Krater04. Jernbur05. Ascend To Nothing06. Spiritual Thirst07. Key And Stone08. Myrå09. PortalPURIFIED IN BLOOD were always an anomaly. Formed in Norway over 20 years ago, their unique strain of brutal metalcore seemed an unlikely development for a country dominated by the black metal scene. Initially affiliated with the straight edge movement, they rose to prominence thanks to a sound that matched up neatly with the metalcore boom in the US (and elsewhere),while still sounding sufficiently gnarly and punishing to win over fans of more extreme fare. For a while it looked like world domination was a possibility: certainly, the Norwegians’ “Under Black Skies” and “Flight Of A Dying Sun” albums were critically acclaimed and monstrous enough to attract an international audience. But all has been quiet on the Stavanger front since 2012, at least until the first fruits of the band’s fourth album sessions started to emerge in 2022. Whether or not “Primal Pulse Thunder” is a genuine comeback, or simply an album stymied by the usual music business delays, is open to debate, but for those who loved PURIFIED IN BLOOD first time around, this is a gloriously full-blooded return to active service.The metalcore tag never seemed an entirely good fit for this band. “Primal Pulse Thunder” is well stocked with all the well-worn tropes that bands have been peddling since at least the late ’90s, but while more commercially minded metalcore bands have become more and more polished and pristine over the years, PURIFIED IN BLOOD remain free of cynicism. This is a murderously heavy record, with a wild and vicious undertow that occasionally blurs into black and death metal and a sense of imperious superiority that makes every one of these songs bristle with scabby-knuckled menace. Neatly encapsulated by its opening title track, “Primal Pulse Thunder” is metalcore in much the same way that Cujo is a dog.Previous albums had plenty of inventive moments, but this time the Norwegians seem to have waded much deeper into the untapped possibilities of their sound. Songs like “Krater” and “Jernbur” will slam and circle-pit listeners into oblivion, but there are some subtle creative maneuvers going on here too: shades of left-field prog metal, a strong affinity with the unholy pomp of black metal, and enough churning, dissonant sludge to keep any WILL HAVEN fan happy. On the gleefully atypical likes of “Ascend To Nothing” and “Spiritual Thirst”, PURIFIED IN BLOOD conjure disquiet and otherworldly grimness from the simplest of ingredients, surreptitiously nail their colors to the prog metal mast, and dabble in bleak, industrial hellscapes that ooze from the speakers like some strident, organic subversion of GODFLESH’s coruscating blueprint. When they do go straight for the jugular, there is a real danger of being scalped: “Key And Stone” is a solid block of ultra-heavy metalcore fury, and “Myra” is an overt sidestep into blackened death metal, replete with vocalist Hallgeir Skretting Enoksen’s vehement, throat-threatening performance. The closing “Portal” is the strongest evidence that PURIFIED IN BLOOD are still evolving. It’s an 11-minute epic that evolves from a prologue of slithering, slow-motion discordance into a dark and destructive metalcore colossus. Vastly heavier for dialing down its speed, it takes surreal detours, with ghostly clean vocals and echoing post-punk guitars, but swiftly returns to the state of all-out hostility that made the band’s early efforts so irresistible.Smarter and more sophisticated than before, Norway’s metalcore outliers have made an album that deserves to restore them to the genre’s upper echelons. But even if PURIFIED IN BLOOD fail to regain their earlier momentum, their music has grown in stature and sounds more powerful, and refreshingly anomalous, than it ever did.[embedded content]