Road-tested by yet more gigs, the revamped SPEEDWHORE make their full-length debut with Visions of a Parallel World. At once sounding strikingly SPEEDWHORE and incredibly reinvigorated, the bands second album takes that odd-yet-endearing mix to grander, grimier levels. On the surface, much of Visions of a Parallel World could soundtrack a heavy metal drinking party.but listen closely and one will detect unique twists of atmosphere and a more idiosyncratic approach to songwriting that jointly put SPEEDWHORE in a whole new realm (or a rarefied one populated by such idiosyncratic cults as fellow Germans Witching Hour or Slovenian labelmates VIGILANCE). The nine-song/39-minute album charges hard and charges in many directions, but always forward and abyss-ward, and the filth freely washes over you as a ghostly fog of ancient terror simultaneously casts its spell. The supremely grainy & old-school yet spacious production skillfully enhances this sensation and further lends an air of the archaic to proceedings, but rest assured that true HEAVY METAL physicality is present and accounted for. Call Visions of a Parallel World, then, a heavy metal drinking party where dread portals are also opened