apanthropy

Bezdan
Upon the Altar
I Hate Records
To Be Released: 11/28/25

Rating: 88/100

“Bezdan have produced a massive debut record that absolutely plays straight to the point, coupling great old-school tonality with early-style death thrash compositions. At roughly a half hour in length, the record never overstays its welcome, presenting itself as an excellent repeat listen. This is a great addition to the already gleaming horde of top-notch records in 2025 and a big win for the Croatian extreme metal scene and Eastern Europe as a whole.“

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1 – Upon the Altar (Intro)
2 – Sacrificial Death
3 – Dark Messiah
4 – When Death Becomes Your Life
5 – Endless Fields of Bones
6 – Hades Knights
7 – Vengeance
8 – Infernal Howls
9 – Crypt of Ancient
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Nobody was expecting Croatia, were they?

In a year already packed full of excellent debut records, Croatia has now entered the conversation thanks to Upon the Altar, the first strike of death thrash monstrosity Bezdan. Due out November 28^th, 2025, through I Hate Records, Bezdan exhibit savagery, fluidity, and they invoke ancient tones reminiscent of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s fledgling death and death thrash scenes, when bands such as Vader, Tormentor, Kat, and Evil Blood raised the flag of hate over Eastern Europe with their inceptions nearly four decades ago.

Originally formed as Desecrator in 2009, the band evolved into Bezdan in 2012 with their debut demo, Of Visions and Voyages, arriving two years later in 2014. An EP and compilation followed in 2017 and a series of singles were issued in 2021 and 2025 respectively. Late 2025 will bear the band’s debut record, with the four-piece delivering nine tracks at roughly 34 minutes of material, Upon the Altar mixes the tonality and composition of early Death and merges it to the riff structures of early Slayer, Possessed, and Bulldozer.

A short intro track opens Upon the Altar and the first hammer strike is delivered on the second track, ‘Sacrificial Death,’ a looming monstrosity of vintage riffs, falsetto vocal flourishes, and pure thrashing drums. Vocally sounding like a cross between demo-era Morbid Angel and early Possessed, their presence is frontal and aggressive, full of character, and perfectly suited for the composition. The destructive opening riff, a tremolo-grinding single note sequence, gives way to a nasty shift in direction, bombarding the listener with screaming leads before entering a breakdown vintage thrash riff reminiscent to that of Slayer’s ‘Die by the Sword.’

Tracks such as ‘Dark Messiah’ embody a serious death thrash execution, with caustic mosh-ready riff work, drums that fire like field guns, and conventional compositions that center around the drive of the guitar work. The dual guitar attack of Filip Horvat and Tomislav Baranašić acts as the propelling dynamo of the record, bringing wave after wave of destructive old-school style riffs that pulse with brooding character, coupled with razor-sharp soloing and crisp leads, the end result is a glorious throwback that benefits from modern tonality, an exceptional execution on songwriting.

‘Endless Field of Bones’ reeks of early American west coast thrash metal while tracks such as ‘Vengeance’ and ‘Infernal Howls’ lean more towards the European side of things. Tight riffs, wild fluidity, and powerful energy, barrages of musical phrases interlaced with breakneck transitions and crystalline soloing.

Production on Upon the Altar is reminiscent of older thrash recordings but with the obvious benefit of modernized tonality, guitars stalk the mid-range and are bursting with sonic character, the drums sound sharp and acute with a prominent snare presence, bass is fairly low in the mix with the vocals being frontal and prominent. There are no smoke and mirrors with the soloing, there’s no massive overdrive presence, heavy amounts of reverb, or studio magic, just pure skill, quality, and talent coupled with killer old-school guitar tone.

Bezdan have produced a massive debut record that absolutely plays straight to the point, coupling great old-school tonality with early-style death thrash compositions. At roughly a half hour in length, the record never overstays its welcome, presenting itself as an excellent repeat listen. This is a great addition to the already gleaming horde of top-notch records in 2025 and a big win for the Croatian extreme metal scene and Eastern Europe as a whole. Absolutely worth checking out if you’re into old-school thrash, death thrash, or generally old-school influenced extreme metal.

Check out some of the promo material for Upon the Altar below:

Label: I Hate Records
Band: Bezdan

AJK