Death Engine – Mud (Review)

Death Engine are a Hardcore band from France. This is their début album.

Death Engine play their Hardcore angry, atonal, dissonant and with much diversity. One moment they’re shredding out complex noisecore and the next they’ve gone all Post-Hardcore for moments of resplendent beauty.

This variety of assault is one of the things that makes Mud such a compelling listen. The band are very talented and even though this is only their first album, (and second release overall), they have clearly honed these compositions into the finely tuned songs that they are today through hard work and passion.

There’s lots of nifty ideas present on the album, starting on the first track Medusa and right up until the final one, Negative. Death Engine obviously aren’t lacking in the creativity department.

Angular riffing and complex drumming make up the lion’s share of the songs whilst the singer works himself up into an emotive frenzy.

The production suits the band; it’s not polished and clear but gritty and real. This is the sound of a band who are alive with vibrancy and furious conviction.

It’s hard to describe the feelings that Mud raises; this is the kind of album that it’s easy to fall in love with. There’s so much on offer here that it’s literally too much to absorb in one listen. This isn’t because there’s too much thrown in just for the sake of it, rather that the band have stuffed so much quality songsmithing into these tracks that while you’re getting absorbed in a particular guitar part it’s easy to miss everything else that’s going on.

This is a veritable Tour de Force of an album and one that Death Engine should be rightly proud of.

Bloody Hell this is good.