Chicago death-metal group These Are They was spawned in 2008 from the remnants of the mid-90s group November’s Doom. Disposing of Betrayers, their sophomore effort comes almost on the heels of their first release on the Unruly Sounds label.

With lyrics based on true-life stories of organized crime in Chicago, the album is a 9-track aural assault that starts hard and never quits. The guitar riff at the end of “La Mano Nera” is a loud and repetitious anthem; a call to action. The line “the message has been delivered” is made all the more ominous by the literal translation of the song’s title: “la mano nera” is Italian for “black hand,” which is a type of extortion racket.

One of the most powerful sequences on the album comes in the manic guitar sequence, power chords, and grinding bass that power fill the final minute of the track “By Phaeton’s Design.” The climax leads directly into a cover of fellow Chicagoans Devastation’s “Cranial Hemorrhage,” which the band uses to make a special effort to return to the roots of their genre. All the more heartfelt because Devastation guitarist Erv Brautigam and vocalist Duane Rasmussen, lent a helping hand. Brutal honesty and despair come out in lines like “Building strength / I fight myself to move another inch / Swirling mind / I’m held back by the dizziness / Consciousness is coming very close to its end.”

The intro to the final, and title track sounds like the lead-up to the climax of a horror film, where everyone in the audience is screaming at the heroine not to go in there!

And sure enough, only destruction awaits.

Conclusion: Not for the faint of heart.