Review by Fernando on June 17, 2025.

Japan has a very interesting history when it comes to metal, the island nation’s natural insular state and being a very sought after country for bands to tour have certainly had an impact. Punk and metal in particular are not just strong in the country, both on its mainstream and underground, but Japanese metalheads’ devotion to the music is so strong that only Finnish metalheads come close to their intensity. Naturally, this also results in metalheads grabbing instruments and starting to make music the way they like it. And today we have the debut record of Japanese speed metal quintet Verdalack; Force From The Grave, and released by Hells Headbangers.

Since Verdalackis such a brand new band with only a demo preceding this LP, I’ll just get right to it. The band play speed metal, and while the Japanese metal underground has always had a strong predilection towards speed and thrash, Verdalack certainly continue the country’s strong tradition, and they certainly play this style with gusto. From the get go the band bombard you with pure, uncut, and unrelenting speed metal. 8 tracks and just under 30 minutes, Force From The Grave is a furious display of speed by true adepts of the style.

While the band does check all the boxes of classic speed metal with immense gusto, where this record truly shines is in all the various elements they bring to the table. For starters, the vocal style of frontman Villain has much more in common with hardcore and thrash than speed, however, he also brings the mandatory Halford and Diamond style soaring screams when the music demands it, but his snarling vocals give the music a sense of grit and attitude that’s not very frequent in speed metal. Furthermore, the strings also branch out from speedy riffage and virtuoso soloing into similarly punkish territory, with the band effortlessly switching between classic Japanese speed metal to old school power metal, to Japanese hardcore, and crust and back to speed metal while maintaining cohesion and intensity from beginning to end.

The one area I do have some criticisms are in regards to the songwriting. It isn’t bad, but the band’s fatal flaw is how in making their own niche of speed metal with elements of punk and epic melodicism, they also box themselves in that unique niche. They certainly make up for it with their performances and individual talents, specially the guitars and drumming, which, since apparently this band features members from Japanese melo-death band Another Dimension, their talent is undeniable. The short run time also works in their favor since they don’t overstay their welcome and the songs, while standard in length of 3 to 4 minutes, pack a massive punch without also feeling too short. So while the lack of variety beyond the band’s own style was something I noticed, everything is evened out.

The production is also excellent, and achieves that distinct organic sound that speed metal bands had in the 80’s while also having enough polish for everything to be audible, being able to hear the bass even in between the massive guitar riffs and Villain’s powerful vocals is a nice plus. Overall, for a debut album, this is some truly great and exciting stuff, and the best impression a speed metal record can give you in my opinion is wanting to immediately mosh about.

Rating: 8 out of 10