{"id":427025,"date":"2026-01-24T12:33:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/427025\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T12:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:33:14","slug":"barbarian-reek-of-god-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/427025\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbarian – Reek of God Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Sometime in the 2010s, I started disliking music with too many flourishes and began seeking out stuff that was more stripped-down, unpolished, and primitive. At this time, Barbarian were the perfect find. Depending on the album, this Italian trio has referred to themselves as \u201cRegressive Metal,\u201d \u201cAbsolute Metal,\u201d or, in the case of their sixth album, Reek of God, \u201cRetrogarde Metal\u201d (typo and all). Led by vocalist and guitarist \u201cBorys Crossburn,\u201d their sound is essentially early Celtic Frost if they were fronted by a guitar-wielding grizzly bear who had a bizarre penchant for the occasional Running Wild-style melody. I\u2019ve had many a fun time cranking my stereo and greasing my ear canals to 2014\u2019s Faith Extinguisher and 2019\u2019s To No God Shall I Kneel<\/a>, though I agree with El Cuervo that 2022\u2019s Viperface<\/a> sagged a bit in the hookiness department. After several years on Hells Headbangers Records, Mr. Crossburn and crew have now jumped ship to a new label, Dying Victims Productions, for Reek of God, their first album in four years.<\/p>\n

Despite the shift, Barbarian seem to have lost none of their belligerence. The album\u2019s intro, aptly titled \u201cWarning,\u201d is a reimagining of the intro of the same name from the 1993 Ice-T album Home Invasion, and it helpfully informs listeners that they are listening to a Barbarian LP before instructing them to take out the tape if they are offended by phrases like \u201cmay the Almighty choke on all my sins.\u201d From there, the first proper track, \u201cMaxima Culpa,\u201d roars in with burly and unapologetic guitars, throttling drums, and Crossburn\u2019s gruff roars. As before, the sound is regressive, pulling lovingly from speed metal, thrash, black metal, and even bits of classic heavy metal with its brief majestic leads. While not the most memorable cut, it\u2019s clear this unwashed bunch still have plenty of piss and vinegar to offer. The follow-up, \u201cSledgehammer,\u201d further beats this home, with its big chunky riffs and pummeling proclamation of the track title helping the song live up to its blunt moniker.<\/p>\n

Sadly, as Reek of God continues, it starts to stink in ways that perhaps it didn\u2019t intend. It soon becomes apparent that Viperface\u2019s shortage of standout hooks seems to have continued on this album\u2014only here, it\u2019s more of an issue. Viperface still succeeded in spite of that hangup because the songs were well-developed and took interesting turns, even if not everything was the most memorable. Here, however, the band have shortened their average track length to around three minutes, and rather than use that abbreviated format to write tight, catchy bangers, the group instead almost always eschew notable refrains in favor of simply tossing together an assortment of decent, aggressive riffs they seem to have had lying around the practice room. The result feels like an album of brief speed metal vignettes that largely pass by without much note. The production only amplifies this issue, as it sounds like the guitars and vocals are fighting for space in the mix, with the guitars having a blaring tone that I don\u2019t love.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there\u2019s still some good here. The last proper track, \u201cRetrogarde Metal\u201d (yes, it\u2019s actually spelled like that), finally does feature a fun shout-along refrain, and closing the album with the horror-synth instrumental \u201cCrurifragium\u201d was a cool touch. \u201cFreak Magnet,\u201d a cover of the all-female rock band L7, is also a solid cut that adds a bit of punky energy late in the runtime. I also enjoy some of the classic heavy metal licks that appear on \u201cCancer Cross,\u201d though such ideas generally seem to be less prevalent on this album than on previous ones. Crossburn also delivers some nice attitude in his vocals, with at least one \u201cUGH!\u201d and a self-referential shoutout of \u201cTell them what\u2019s up, Crossburn!\u201d before a ripping solo.<\/p>\n

Overall, though, it\u2019s hard not to be a little disappointed here. By doubling down on their no-fucks-given attitude, Barbarian seems to have taken an even moar primitive and less refined approach, resulting in shorter songs that have plenty of energy but not as much that sticks to the ribs. In their best prior works, the band excelled at combining mighty riffs and melodic leads into wholly engaging compositions. Only time will tell if we\u2019ll ever see them do that again.<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/p>\n

Rating: 2.5\/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Dying Victims Productions<\/a>
Websites: linktr.ee\/barbarianmetal<\/a> | facebook.com\/barbarianmetal<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: January 23rd, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometime in the 2010s, I started disliking music with too many flourishes and began seeking out stuff that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[94168,54639,53389,9676,155581,46865,88,25605,58896,46876,194841,203059,216,203060,899,900,136845,136846,46895],"class_list":["post-427025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-2-5","tag-54639","tag-barbarian","tag-black-metal","tag-celtic-frost","tag-dying-victims-productions","tag-entertainment","tag-heavy-metal","tag-ice-t","tag-italian-metal","tag-jan26","tag-l7","tag-music","tag-reek-of-god","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-running-wild","tag-speed-metal","tag-thrash-metal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}