Review by Dominik on April 21, 2025.

Bands from Turkey are a rare occurrence in my collection. There is The Sarcophagus quietly lurking in a corner, and then there's Persecutory, who've been on my radar since the band released “Towards the Ultimate Extinction”—a title that sounds like the band was already planning my funeral playlist. The here reviewed 2024 EP “The Glorious Persecution” is their finest hour (well, 22 minutes, but who’s counting when your face is melting?), and an important step up from their previous works. So, what changed? Why does the EP hit harder than their previous offerings? It comes down to this: it doesn’t feel anymore like a band figuring out what they want to be. It sounds like a band that knows they want to beat you senseless with a shovel forged from equal parts black metal frostbite and death metal muscle.

Persecutory dwell in that narrow, dangerous no-man's-land between death and black metal—two genres that generally treat each other like awkward cousins at a funeral. The band’s earlier material leaned more into death metal, with the blackened elements in their early days often feeling like decorative corpse paint. But finally, with “The Glorious Persecution”, they have nailed it. Their roots shine through, but there is an evident impact of the black metal part, creating a sound that feels forged from a single mold. No more tug-of-war—it feels like one single, unified beast snarling through the speakers.

The EP unleashes three tracks on us, and they share a common mission: to beat the ever-loving hell out of the listener. They want to break your spirit, knock over your coffee table, and possibly summon something unholy from the gap under your couch. There’s no warm-up. No seduction. Just pure sonic violence. The tempo is often relentlessly high, the guitars switch between frosty black metal atmospheres and pulverizing death metal riffs, and the overall impact is that of being dragged backwards through a warzone. The drummer deserves a medal, or possibly an exorcism. His performance is tight even at ludicrous speeds, never losing control, never giving the rest of us a break. The vocals sit right at the crossroads too—neither fully black nor fully death but snarling in a tone that could peel paint off the walls and probably did during the recording session.

Of the three songs, the opener “Infernal Gateway to Watchers” is my personal favorite. It's the most immediately accessible song, which in times with not enough time to spare is a feat to like. “Ecstatic Demonlords” stands out with a curious break in the middle, which then detonates into the most intense passage of the song. Urgent riffs, drums in panic mode, and somehow, through all the chaos, a strange “lightness” peeks through—something only black metal can conjure while screaming about demonlords. Then there’s the title track, “The Glorious Persecution”, the longest and most ambitious piece. The song refuses to sit still—tempos change constantly, moods shift, even the vocals explore subtle pitch shifts. There’s mid-tempo stomping driven by double bass, there’s high-speed frenzy—it’s a full parade of sonic violence with enough variety to keep you guessing which kind of suffering comes next.

Production-wise, the EP sounds just right. Raw enough to stay dangerous, clear enough that the instruments don’t dissolve into a single grey smear. The only real “flaw” (if you're a nerd about it) is that the songs, while individually strong, occasionally bleed into each other stylistically. It’s a little bit like being punched in the face three times by different people wearing the same brass knuckles. It still hurts, is still satisfying, but maybe next time they could use different rings.

That said, “The Glorious Persecution” is a huge step forward for Persecutory. The album is a calculated, savage, and oddly refined explosion of sound. It’s aggressive, relentless, and finally, fully formed. A must-listen for fans of extreme metal, who enjoy being sonically abused.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10 – because when death and black finally get along, the only real victim is your nervous system.