Death Metal – Page 145 – Wonderbox Metal

Demonical – Black Flesh Redemption (Review)

Demonical are from Sweden and this is their latest EP. They play Death Metal.

I’ve always got time for a bit of Swedish Death Metal, and this latest EP by Demonical serves as a suitable ambassador of the style for anyone who’s unlucky enough to be unfamiliar with it.

That Swedish chainsaw presence is accounted for, as are the dark melodies and heavy grooves that so endear the style to so many.

Demonical do this proud sub-genre justice and these four songs are exemplars of the style.

The riffs are superb and everything is heavier than Hell. The drums crash like explosions and the vocals are so deeply satisfying it’s a joy to hear.

Each track here is very well-written and really hits the spot. Swedish Death Metal gets by on songs, rather than speed/brutality/extremity/technicality/etc. just for the sake of it, and these songs are tight, precise, very heavy and instantly appealing.

Swedish Death Metal has its detractors of course, and as such not everyone will be as gushing about this as me. The thing is though, even if you have had your fill of the style, I fail to see how this can’t relight the passion you must surely have felt at one point for it. I mean, deep down, everyone likes this kind of stuff really, I know they do. What’s not to like?

But I digress. I’ve not encountered Demonical before, but based on Black Flesh Redemption it seems like this has been a crying shame as this EP is really damn good.

At only 17 minutes in length and containing more quality Death Metal than most bands manage in twice that, this is an EP that you must add to your collection.

A firm essential purchase for all Swedish Death Metal fans. For all Death Metal fans, in fact.

Gruesome – Savage Land (Review)

This is the début album by US Death Metal band Gruesome.

This is a supergroup of sorts, featuring members of Exhumed, Possessed, Malevolent Creation and Derketa. Gruesome exist purely to pay homage to Old-School Floridian Death Metal, with specific reference to the early work of Death.

It’s clear from the very start that they have everything in place to achieve this.

The sound is an authentic Morrisound one, only polished up a bit and without actually being recorded there.

The music is straight out of the Old-School Death handbook, complete with galloping drums, sharp riffs and leads/solos aplenty.

Savage Land excels in the songs though; without good songs this album would fall flat as being rather pointless. Thankfully though, listening to all of those Death Metal albums from an early age has done wonders for the band and this is a really enjoyable album that almost seems to reanimate the corpse of Death, if only for a little while.

In fact the spirit of Death is felt strongly throughout these 36 minutes. It seems to be lurking wherever you look, the riffs, the drums, the solos, the vocals, the choruses, everything really; deeply infused into the songs.

In another band this might be seen as a bad thing, but in Gruesome it’s so honest, so pure, so well-realised that Savage Land just comes off as a triumph.

Turn the volume up and give this a listen. If you’ve ever been a fan of early Death then I defy you not to enjoy this.

Ataxia – Calignious (Review)

Ataxia are a Canadian Death Metal band and this is their début album.

This is sharp Death Metal with a technical twist.

The band have a well-produced sound that’s tight and focused. Good musicianship means that the band know how to widdle and lots of technical muscles are flexed.

The singer has a decent growl that seems to come straight from the depths of somewhere dark and evil.

Ataxia are a band who are trying to do something slightly different with the Death Metal template. Yes, to the untrained eye this is essentially Death Metal, but to the connoisseur of such things Ataxia have enough of their own personality and ideas that are manifested in Calignious to cause you to sit up and take notice.

The band seem to prefer to embed their technicality into the very brutal essence of the songs as a general rule, as there are surprisingly few solos or leads on this release. Most of the time the complicated fretwork makes up the bulwark of the rhythms and snakes around the blasting drums.

This is brutal, Technical Death Metal which takes its cues from the experimental sides of Atheist and Death as much as Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation.

I think it’s time to support the Metal underground once more and lay your hands on this.

Mindscar – Kill the King (Review)

Mindscar are from the US and this is their début album. They play Death Metal.

This is an interesting release. The band play Death Metal that’s brutal and is not without technicality, yet also features a good amount of melodic and atmospheric sections and even clean vocals on occasion.

It’s a winning combination. The blasting brutality of the Death Metal core mixes surprisingly well with the more restrained, melodic parts.

The band seem to be talented musicians and there are no shortage of solos or technical wizardry.

The more atmospheric sections have the aura of Nile or Behemoth if they experimented with background clean vocals a bit more. They definitely have an exotic flavour to these parts and it’s great to see a band spread their wings to incorporate wide influences as well as the more traditionally brutal aspects of their sound.

They’re not afraid to show their Classic Metal heritage either, with a few riffs that would do Iron Maiden proud lurking here and there, albeit heavied-up some.

Sort of a cross between elements of Behemoth, Nile, Atrocity, Orphaned Land, Melechesh, Gorguts and Misery Index. Quite an eclectic mix in some ways when you see it written down, but when you hear it it all slots together quite naturally.

You’ve gotta love an Extreme Metal band who are willing to push the boundaries a bit. Kill the King fuses blasting extremity with melodic abandon and exotic atmospherics to great effect. Importantly they get the ratio correct. It’s mainly heavy and brutal, contains a good amount of flashy solos and leads, with the more atmospheric sections used sparingly for maximum effect.

Very good stuff indeed. Listen and enjoy.

Profanity – Hatred Hell Within (Review)

Profanity are from Germany and play Brutal/Technical Death Metal. This is their latest EP.

The band have a strong presence and their Death Metal is tight and precise.

Profanity have a sound that combines the Brutal, the Technical and the Progressive all in three songs, 20 minutes. As they’ve been around since 1993 they clearly know the sound they want and are experienced enough to achieve it, (even if this is the band’s first release in over a decade).

They manage to combine these aforementioned sub-genres in such a way that the end result borrows from both the New School and a more timeless brand of Death Metal.

The songs are intelligently composed and the extended, (for the style), running time of the songs, (or two of them at least), allows the band the space to really work themselves into a Technical/Progressive frenzy.

The vocalist is blessed with a deep, growling roar and he sounds utterly inhuman.

The production is strong and the band can all really play. I also love the bass; I love a band who actually use the bass as an integral part of their sound and here it has a chance to shine like the rest of the instruments. There’s even a bit of a bass solo!

Let me calm myself down a bit before I continue. The excitement is too much.

However, exciting is a good word for Profanity. Not in a high energy way, (although they have plenty of that), but just from the sheer rush of speed, brutality and technical mayhem that the band so easily and effortlessly dish out.

I must confess I’d never encountered Profanity before this. If Hatred Hell Within is anything to go by it’s definitely my loss as this EP is a sterling release by this band. It promises extremely good things for the future and here’s to their next album!

Incinerate – Eradicating Terrestrial Species (Review)

This is the third album from US Technical/Brutal Death Metallers Incinerate.

With a quality Death Metal album cover, this is the kind of band that it’s easy to like. Once the usual pointless intro is out of the way, we get lots of brutally satisfying USDM-esque carnage with plenty of chugs and squeals to keep fans of the style happy.

This is a well-oiled Death Metal machine that chews you up and spits you out with a mechanistic relish.

Ultra-guttural vocals are the order of business although some variation is added by some screaming. They hit the spot nicely.

The playing is precise and surgical, with enough technicality to please and enough straight-ahead brutality to satisfy.

If you like your Death Metal in the classic US vein then Incinerate have what it takes to scratch that deep, bloody, sore itch.

For fans of Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Deeds of Flesh, Defeated Sanity, etc.

Veld – Daemonic: The Art of Dantalian (Review)

This is the fourth album from Belarus Death Metallers Veld.

Sometimes, only Death Metal will do. Sometimes, it’s the only thing you want to hear. To someone like me an album like this is right up my street, so to speak.

Here we have a flawlessly produced album that has a shockingly strong sound and contains Death Metal that’s non-generic and padded out with interesting enhancements and ideas.

The press blurb touts similarities to Nile, Behemoth and Hour of Penance; all hard hitters and all equally hard to argue with.

Veld are a talented band it seems as they’re equally at home creating an impressively brutal noise or revelling in dark atmospheres. The fact that they can equally play these differing styles of Death Metal and do it well makes this album very listenable and enjoyable.

Some top riffing and melodies accompany the skilful drumming. Quasi-Black Metal influences make the cut too and it all adds character to the assault.

Veld have created some involving music here. Blasting Death Metal with enough variety and interest to make them interesting and enough core violence so they don’t lose their edge.

Highly recommended.

Embrional – The Devil Inside (Review)

Embrional are a Death Metal band from Poland and this is their second album.

If the album cover alone doesn’t make you want to listen to this album then I don’t know what will.

This is evil and sinister Death Metal that blasts and thrashes around with the best of them but still keeps an air of the malevolent occult.

The sound is one of a good quality underground band; professional enough to do the music justice yet loose enough to allow the band’s black light to shine through.

Decent growling vocals are ably performed and the singer has a satisfying roar.

The songs are enjoyable slices of dark death and the band have enough ideas and variety within their brutal assault to provide something a little different from a straight ahead Brutal Death Metal band.

Strewn around the rubble of the main Death Metal assault are moments of bleak atmosphere and surprising detail. Elements of near-Black Metal introspection occur and are swiftly combined with the Death Metal assault to create interesting songs that definitely have their own personality.

The band clearly have a good grasp of pacing and know how to follow a good line of riffing to its (un)natural conclusion. In pretty much every song there are a few choice moments where you sit back and think “Ooooo this is a good bit”.

If you’re looking for some occult Death Metal that’s a little different and has more to offer than just pure brutality then The Devil Inside is definitely worthy of your attention.

Favourite Track: Hard to pick, but maybe Funeral March; it’s one of the more Black Metal/Doom inspired songs here yet still finds time for some blasting brutality and a breakdown-style section that would do Decapitated proud. Essentially, like the album as a whole, it’s just really damn good.

Offal/Zombie Cookbook – Dementia Trash/Motel Hell – Split (Review)

Offal and Zombie Cookbook are both from Brazil and both play predominantly Old-School Death Metal.

Offal are first up, with two tracks lasting 5 minutes.

The first song consists of some nice Old-School battery, with plenty of murk and the stench of the crypt about it.

It’s a very well written song with some really good riffs and a thoughtful structure. Good leads enhance the foetid aura and it shows that Offal have learned a thing or two from listening to their old Autopsy and Impetigo records.

Cavernous growls are the vocals of choice, sounding ancient and terrifying with their ominous presence.

The second song, Spinal Extractions Fiend for Blood, is much shorter, with more of a Grind influence, but even this is delivered in an Old-School style.

Zombie Cookbook are next, with two tracks lasting 6 minutes.

First song Motel Hell has an Old-School vibe as well, recalling a rotten mix of old Obituary and Death with a hint of Thrash Metal thrown in for good measure. The vocals lash out as if in pain and the sense of the underground is strong.

The second song, Eredità Maledetta, is shorter, faster and altogether tighter.

Zombie Cookbook sound like an undiscovered band from the late 90’s. That’s a compliment, of course.

A short and brutal split that reeks of the underground and revels in its Old-School nature.

Listen if you dare.

Ichor – Depths (Review)

Ichor are from Germany and play Death Metal. This is their third album.

Who doesn’t love a bit of Modern Death Metal? I know I do. Sharp and tight, played with just the right hint of Deathcore and heavier than a barrelful of spanners? Sign me up!

Take a look at the album cover – you know what you’re getting yourself into. If you like bands such as The Kennedy Veil, Wormed, Alterbeast, Job for a Cowboy, Bloodtruth, Deep in Hate, etc. then this is another must.

This is brutal music played for the love of carnage and all things destructive. Lightning riffs and chugging menace work alongside inhuman drumming and lethal intent.

The vocals are aggressive growls that trade off with scything screams. The vocalist clearly knows his business and puts in a top-rate performance.

These songs have the requisite speed and brutality to them but I also like the energetic riffing and dynamic nature of the guitars. There’s also somewhat of a Morbid Angel/Behemoth feel to some of the guitar parts, which is a different angle that differentiates them from some of their similar peers.

There are some nice ideas and interesting enhancements on this, a good example is the added orchestration that infuses some of the songs and creates another layer of atmosphere to the proceedings. Top work.

I particularly enjoy some of the lead guitarwork and there are plenty of solos to satisfy as well, which is something I really like too. These chaotic melodics work well with the hardened brutality of Ichor’s core and the songs come alive with a darkness that sometimes even borders on the edge of Blackened Death Metal.

Yes, yes; much like Swedish Death Metal I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff, but this really is a damn fine album. The cutting riffs, growling hatred and superior songwriting mean Ichor will be with me for some time to come.

Here’s to plumbing the depths…