Obey The Riff... As far as aphorisms go few hit harder than Beastwars' heavy metal mantra. Returning in 2016 with what will undoubtedly become one of this year's most revelatory releases, Beastwars are a band so heavy, and heavily admired by fans in the Southern Hemisphere, they practically weigh the world in place and stop it spinning wildly off its axis. In 2011, Beastwars released their self-titled debut to critical acclaim and in doing so transformed New Zealand's metal landscape. Reviewers celebrated the album's slow- burning furnace of bass-trawling riffage, as well as its distinctive blend of lysergic and premonitory metal that compared the band to Kyuss, Neurosis and Godflesh, while hinting at influences as distinctive as The Jesus Lizard, Black Sabbath, and in Hyde's 'avant-grunt', Celtic Frost. Music that at its very core channels a colossal mood filtered to a point where every wail, every riff, every bass thump and every cymbal crash serves to remind you that this is enigmatic and darkened metal, straight from the murky heart of the Antipodes.