Classic Death Metal – Page 12

Echelon – The Brimstone Aggrandizement (Review)

Echelon are an international death metal supergroup. This is their second album.

With a lineup that contains a huge amount of experience; like the recently released Stench Price, (which shares personnel), I’m just going to list the various members below from the press blurb for ease of clarity –

Dave Ingram (Hail of Bullets, ex-Bolt Thrower, ex-Benediction)
Rogga Johansson (Paganizer, Demiurg, Putrevore)
Johan Berglund (Ribspreader, The Grotesquery)
Kjetil Lynghaug (Johansson & Speckmann, Paganizer)
Travis Ruvo (Akatharta, Cropsy Maniac)

As you can see. These guys know a thing or two about death metal. Continue reading “Echelon – The Brimstone Aggrandizement (Review)”

Obituary – Ten Thousand Ways to Die (Review)

Obituary are a legendary death metal band from the US and this is their latest release.

Featuring two brand new studio songs and 12 live tracks recorded during their 2015 Inked in Blood world tour, this is a Continue reading “Obituary – Ten Thousand Ways to Die (Review)”

Asphyx – Incoming Death (Review)

Hailing from The Netherlands, this is the ninth album from legendary death metallers Asphyx.

Asphyx are a well-known band for a reason and new material from them is always welcome.

Incoming Death contains 48 minutes of colossal death metal, with huge riffs and drums that drop like bombs.

War-themed and crushingly heavy, this is an album that sweeps you away as soon as you start playing it. Sure, there are Continue reading “Asphyx – Incoming Death (Review)”

Inherit Disease – Ephemeral (Review)

Inherit Disease are a US Death Metal band. This is their third album.

Combining some technicality and lots of brutality, Inherit Disease play a classic USDM style that allows them to showcase their love of the genre and all things brutal.

The music on Ephemeral combines speedy aggression with some chunky slam riffs, producing 39 minutes of utterly depraved brutality.

The singer’s vocals are sickeningly deep, stopping just short of descending into the kind of ridiculous pignoise burping that tends to ruin bands. His voice is as ugly and as gruesome as the music.

Ephemeral is unrelenting and harsh, rarely stopping for breath as it chops, hacks and carves its way through the tracks. There’s something very satisfying about this kind of music. It’s just so timelessly appealing; despite what other musical trends and moods might take you, Death Metal will always be there. Waiting. Lurking. Ready to strike.

I like that the more you listen to this, the more you enjoy it. It’s an unstoppable juggernaut of groove and blasting, easily absorbed by anyone who has a taste for bands like Deeds of Flesh, Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, Severe Torture, Dying Fetus, Defeated Sanity, etc.

For a solid fix of heavy brutality and death-dealing, Inherit Disease have got you covered.

Check them out.

Strangulate – Catacombs of Decay (Review)

Strangulate are an Indian Death Metal band, this is their début album.

Strangulate’s Death Metal is raw and brutal, going straight for the throat with their direct assault.

The gruesome riffs and bloody vocals sound like they were recorded about 20 years ago and then sealed in a crypt and forgotten about. Until now. It seems that some hapless victim has stumbled upon these ancient recordings and unleashed them on the world.

The band’s ugly approach to Death Metal is not polished, not state-of-the-art, not technical and not precise, and once they have you in their grip you wouldn’t want it any other way. This is 33 minutes of murderous, nasty music that knows a thing or two about how best to go about causing as much damage as possible.

Music like this is very honest and the passion of the band comes through in the delivery. The songs may be raw and unyielding, but they play the classic style well and the songwriting is on point. There’s a pleasing mix of blast beats and the mid-paced, with plenty of tasty riffs along the way that are catchier than you might think, too.

I hear elements of bands like Cannibal Corpse, (old) Hypocrisy, Gorerotted, Incantation, Severe Torture, Suffocation and a host of others in their sound. They pick and choose their influences with care and Catacombs of Decay is enriched by the band’s knowledge of their Death Metal heritage.

I mustn’t neglect to mention the singer, either. His clipped barking growls are performed flawlessly, perfectly capturing the essence of the style.

Mixing the old-school and classic styles of Death Metal to provide us with a great combination of blasting brutality and well-thought out riffs, Strangulate’s début is a winner and definitely rough and fierce enough to scrape your skin off.

Highly recommended.

Cult of Lilith – Arkanum (Review)

Cult of Lilith are a Death Metal band from Iceland. This is their début EP.

Cult of Lilith play their Death Metal with muscularity, power and no little technical flair. Their style combines influences from both classic Death Metal and the more modern variants; this has equal respect for Death as it does The Faceless.

Melodic influences raise their heads in places, done in a thoroughly modern style, (not a million miles away from that of The Faceless). There’s even a touch of a Black Metal influence here and there, as well as a decent amount of technicality that both Gorguts and Death fans would be pleased with.

Deep growling shouts are the singer’s weapon of choice, although these are backed up with some quite savage screams where necessary.

These are quite involved songs that have a fair bit going on, but the band still know when to ease off the complexity and just go straight for the throat with a blasting assault when they need to. There’s a lot of good ideas and interesting added extras on these tracks and it’s clear that Cult of Lilith have high ambition for themselves.

A very promising start for this new band. I look forward to what they do next.

Third Sovereign – Perversion Swallowing Sanity (Review)

Third Sovereign are an Indian Death Metal band and this is their second album.

Third Sovereign play classic Death Metal that values a good riff. More than this though, they know how to stitch them together to achieve the end result they want.

Catchy, infectious guitars are the main feature of the tracks and they are done really well. It’s clear that Third Sovereign are not lacking for inspiration in this department. A nice thick guitar sound and overall good production lends strength to the songs too.

The singer has a different type of voice than I was expecting, which was that of a more cookie-monster styled delivery. What we actually get is a more distinctive, characterful series of growls and barks that sound surprisingly individual.

There’s a rhythmic muscularity to these songs, ripe with power and classic Death Metal chops. They have lots of energy and sound designed to be played live where I’m sure they can stir up the pit something fierce.

Perversion Swallowing Sanity is quality Death Metal. What more is there to say? Listen at full volume.

Carnivorous Voracity – The Impious Doctrine (Review)

This is the début album from Spanish Brutal Death Metal band Carnivorous Voracity.

Making a strong opening statement of intent with their album cover, Carnivorous Voracity proceed to deliver almost exactly what you might expect over these 36 minutes.

It’s very hard for me to dislike Death Metal like this. It’s savage and nasty, but with enough songwriting savvy to make sure that the music doesn’t become too one-dimensional. This is an important point, as a lot of bands of this ilk are essentially one-trick ponies, no matter how enjoyable.

With The impious Doctrine the band have ensured that there are enough elements of a few different types of ugly brutality included to keep things fresh and interesting. Brutal Death Metal forms the core of the release, but there’s sprinklings of Classic, Modern, Slam and Technical Death Metal thrown into the blender. It all makes for a very satisfying album.

The songs hit the mark, they really do. Although not a band who are primarily about hooks and catchiness, there’s a surprising amount of good hooks on here regardless, and overall this is a very strong album.

The recording is solid and everything sounds slick and professional. The blasting drums and face-smashing riffs are in-your-face, tight and focused.

The vocalist veers between lethal growls and ugly pigsqueals; being very proficient in both he never puts a foot wrong in his delivery.

Yes, this is a very, very nice release. TIME FOR FULL VOLUME CARNAGE!

For fans of Cannibal Corpse, Cryptopsy, Origin, Defeated Sanity, Coprocephalic, Analepsy, etc.

Insanity – Visions of Apocalypse (Review)

Insanity are a Death Metal band from the US. This is their second album.

Featuring a sharp Old-School sound, Insanity’s brand of Death Metal is from a much older era, harking back to the 80s period. Death are a clear influence, (pre-Progressive Death Metal), and Insanity are equally as sharp in their delivery. Add this to a simpler, more straight-forward Death Metal style, à la early-Deicide, and you have honest songs that hit the spot more often than not.

Shining leads and solos make frequent grabs for the limelight and the drummer keeps a machine-like performance going throughout.

There’s decent variation within their musical framework and the songwriting concentrates on songs first and foremost. The combination of simple riffs with more-complicated solos, leads and guitar parts makes for a compelling listen. There’s also a slight Thrash Metal influence which means that Visions of Apocalypse has a lot to offer the listener.

The singer’s voice is somewhere between a scream and a growl, nailing down the feeling of Classic Death Metal in my mind.

This is a really satisfying album that I’ve enjoyed more than I expected to; a convincing display of Classic Death Metal in 2015 from a band who were around and active when it was all originally happening. In hindsight, how could this album be anything other than a victory?

Avulsed – Altar of Disembowelment (Review)

Avulsed are a Death Metal band from Spain. This is their latest EP.

Avulsed are one of the best Death Metal bands in the world. Sorry, but that’s just a fact. Ever since I first got Stabwound Orgasm in 1999, I’ve been hooked, and that album still remains one of the best of the genre.

Their last album Ritual Zombi was full of gruesome goodies, and on this latest EP, we get a short 23 minutes of brutality, comprising 4 originals and a Black Sabbath cover.

The Avulsed seal of quality we’ve come to expect from these veterans is firmly stamped all over these tracks and the music is full of well-written songs that are catchy, memorable and filled with meaty Death Metal morsels.

Their venerated singer still sounds like the father of all Cookie Monsters and his voice, as usual, is cavernous with aggressive growls sounding larger than life and twice as deadly.

If you don’t know Avulsed, (tsk tsk), then just know that they play Classic Death Metal with plenty of catchy riffs, licks and brutal heaviness.

The production is heavy, clear and wrapped in an odour of entrails. The instruments all shine when they need to and everything is balanced and perfectly covered in blood.

Another top-quality release from Avulsed. Let’s hope they reign in bloody chunks for many years to come.