Desaster - Churches Without Saints (2021) Hi-Res

It’s a rare band that starts off extreme, gets a chance to keep it going on a big label, and retains the things that made them special in the first place across the years. It’s even less common when you go all the way back to the beginning, to the earliest days of extreme metal; bands went goth, prog, garage rock, groove, djent, or just outright lost their passion as trends came and went around them.

Germany's Desaster are one of the only bands around to start strong and stay consistent, prolific, and retain their quality level. Their first album, A Touch of Medieval Darkness, is an uncontested classic of black/thrash—but so is Hellfire’s Dominion, their second one, and each album and era of the band has worshippers. Churches Without Saints is Desaster’s ninth album and magically it’s still really fucking good despite that, with the band never having lost their fire across all those decades.