Old-School Death Metal – Page 39

Spinebreaker – Ice Grave (Review)

This is the début album from Spinebreaker, a Death Metal band from the US.

This is ugly Old-School Death Metal born bloody and ragged from the Hardcore scene. This means that the band combine the purity of their Death Metal heritage with the fire and energy of their Hardcore bloodline.

My, what a sound they have! Boasting a Swedish Death Metal guitar tone that their spiritual forefathers would be proud of, this is presented in a filthed-up package that fuses the feel of the era and style with a Hardcore edge and a touch of At the Gates and Carcass in the vocal department.

The end result is a savage demonstration of the fact that A) you don’t need to be Swedish to wield a chainsaw and B) there’s life in Old-School Swedish Death Metal yet; it’s not necessary for a band to simply rehash past glories.

Spinebreaker manage to successfully inject vitality and vibrancy into a rather stale, (but still very enjoyable), sub-genre. The inclusion of a Hardcore edge to some of the riffs adds a blood-pumping energy and the harsh screaming growls are a thing of gory beauty.

Whether ripping out giant grooves or pounding heaviness, Spinebreaker make everything sound dark, nightmarish and nasty, just as it should be. The spectre of At the Gates looms over the faster sections, (prompted for me by the vocals, but bleeding into the guitars too), and it’s a joy to hear this encapsulated by such a dirty Swedish delivery.

A very enjoyable 38 minutes.

Triumvir Foul – Triumvir Foul (Review)

Triumvir Foul are a Death Metal band from the US and this is their début album.

Triumvir Foul’s first release, An Oath of Blood and Fire, was a blistering taste of the band’s Old-School Death Metal, and on this full-length they expand upon this early filthy promise.

It’s cold, it’s evil, and it’s fucking dark; it’s Triumvir Foul. One of the things I enjoy about this band is the aura of malignant darkness that they produce so well. They just seem to bleed malevolence and grim atmosphere. There’s no gimmicks, it’s just filthy, evil, Old-School Death Metal that’s positively rabid in its hunger for your soul.

For a band like this it would be too easy to just stick to the slow tempos and let the morbid atmospheres do the work, but thankfully they don’t take the easy route; they throw in some higher speed parts and some blast beats and yet still, amazingly, manage to sound nasty and sinister.

This is some top quality work from Triumvir Foul. Such a murky, corrupt sound should always be praised and Triumvir Foul have some damn good songs to go along with the vile atmospheres too.

Very highly recommended.

Desecresy – Stoic Death (Review)

This is the fourth album from Finnish Death Metallers Desecresy.

We’ve met Desecresy before with their third album, Chasmic Transcendence.

This is Old-School Death Metal that mainly favours a mid-paced/slow assault, with morbid atmospheres and Doom/Death influences.

If you imagine a band like Bolt Thrower and add a bit of Doom/Death flourishes then you’ll have a good idea of where Desecresy are coming from. It’s a simple and effective formula that sees the band steamroll through these 35 minutes with warlike ease.

The vocals growl raggedly while the music trudges relentlessly onwards. Emotive and sinister leads provide a lot of depth for the tracks. The rhythm guitars focus on providing a murky backdrop for the songs and the drums and bass underpin everything in their own unhurried way. In fact, special note should be made of the bass, as occasionally it takes a more central role than the instrument usually does, and those bits in particular sound niiiiice.

So, with good songwriting Stoic Death is an enjoyable trip into Desecresy’s world. At this stage in their career they obviously know what they’re doing and the songs on Stoic Death are accomplished slabs of deathly darkness.

Devotees of Old-School Death Metal be sure to check this out.

Voros – Diseased Deity (Review)

Voros are a Death Metal band from Australia and this is their début album.

If heavy Death Metal with good riffs and pacing is your thing then look no further. Voros feature a thorough approach to Death Metal that sees them take the Classic style and infuse it with a modern energy.

Believe it or not, but Diseased Deity covers a lot of bases; Death, Thrash, Progressive, Technical and Modern Metal are all thrown into the blender and feed into this Death Metal feast.

The vocals are savage shouts full of anger and hatred which seem to lash out of the music like diseased barbs. The singer has a touch of the Meshuggah about him, giving his voice a different edge to that of the normal Death Metal vocalist.

The songs are well-written and see the band showing off what they do, whether it’s riff-hungry, mid-paced Thrashing, faster complexity or blasting destruction.

I like the combination of older and modern influences that give this a feel of Lamb of God and Gojira conspiring together to cover Morbid Angel, Death and Immolation tracks. It’s a really good way to approach this album; modern fire with tried-and-tested Old-School steel. On Diseased Deity it all comes together perfectly and the songs are an interesting, varied and engaging vision of what the band want to achieve.

The various influences work together very well to produce an album that takes from several different styles, with the band having enough skill and talent to make it all their own. Diseased Deity is very impressive and these songs have both immediate appeal and longevity of delivery.

This is a great find. I recommend you get hold of this immediately.

Ripping Death – Tales of the Ripper (Review)

This is the début release from Ripping Death, an Old-School Death Metal band.

A mere 13 minutes in length, this release is the first calling card for their thoroughly morbid take on Old-School Death Metal.

Here we have three original tracks and a Cianide cover. The music has a resolutely 80s feel and the songs are simple, catchy and full of vigour.

Fast riffs and furious solos fly out over pounding, warm-sounding drums and a singer that sounds like he has been unearthed from some long-lost crypt.

There’s something very satisfying about this kind of music. It’s an authentic take on an earlier version of the genre, focusing on a time when songs were more important than speed and feeling was valued higher than technicality. Ripping Death succeed very well in achieving what they set out to do with Tales of the Ripper, and this a ripping, (ahem), collection of songs that are chock full of riotous, catchy hooks and distinctly morbid atmospheres.

Yes, we’ll have some more of this, please.

Bloodstrike – In Death We Rot (Review)

This is the début album from US Death Metallers Bloodstrike.

Their first EP Necrobirth showcased massive potential and, as I said at the time, indicated that their first full-length would probably be very good indeed.

So, have these claims been vindicated?

In a word; yes.

Bloodstrike play Death Metal that takes the Old-School style, adds a bit of a Swedish flavour and then drags it through a cemetery to get that authentic graveyard feeling. They even cover Soulless by Grave, a Death Metal classic if ever there was one.

The songs are of the aforementioned style, resolutely from the 90s era. The production on In Death We Rot follows suit and the entire album has an Old-School feeling that uses the Swedish style well but doesn’t completely confine itself to it.

Riffs, riffs and more riffs, alongside creepy leads and gloom-filled atmospheres. There are lots of good riffs on here that hit the spot nicely, with both faster sections and slower ones working out well together. The leads contribute to atmosphere-building, especially when combined with a more Doom-ier section, although the band are no slackers when it comes to speed either.

The singer has a beastly voice that sounds completely monstrous. Her vocals were damn good on their earlier release and on In Death We Rot she simply sounds inhuman. Kudos.

This is a really solid album that caters easily to fans of morbid Death Metal. Be sure to check it out.

Just Before Dawn – The Dead and Those About to Die (Review)

Just Before Dawn are an International Death Metal band featuring band members prolific in any number of other groups. This is their latest EP.

Their last album The Aftermath was a good romp through war-torn climes and The Dead and Those About to Die is no different.

As you have probably worked out, this is war-themed Old-School Death Metal à la Bolt Thrower, with a bit of the Swedish Death Metal style thrown in for overkill.

There are five songs on this release, adding up to a hefty 28 minutes of music. The music is solid Death Metal and brings to mind a huge armoured vehicle, relentlessly crawling over a cratered battlefield to bring rolling death to all of its enemies.

Battle-scarred survivors, these five songs detail the horror and destruction of war via the medium of crushing Death Metal that’s well-written and performed by veterans of great experience who know exactly what they’re doing. The battle-scarred survivors have seen it all and lived to tell the tale. This tale.

The Dead and Those About to Die is an enjoyable trip down a memory lane that’s been bombed to rubble.

Have a listen.

Favourite Track: Into the Iron Mist. High energy with some vocal variety and atmospheric leads.

Abyssus – Into the Abyss (Review)

This is the début album from Greek Death Metallers Abyssus.

I’m familiar with Abyssus from their Split with Morbider, and I have to say that I enjoyed that release quite a lot, from both band’s perspectives. So when this album from Abyssus popped into my inbox, I immediately prioritised it.

Abyssus play Old-School Death Metal with a strong Obituary influence, which is not something that you hear too often when compared with bands that take their influences from other Death Metal greats. Even the singer’s voice seems moulded by Obituary, with a similar kind of tone and style apparent.

This may be Obituary-worship in some ways, but it still has its own charms and Into the Abyss boils along at its own pace causing destruction and death wherever it travels.

The songs are simple, atavistic paeans to 90s Death Metal, with the recording values following suit. It’s a pleasing collection of tracks that makes a good impression with its honesty and authenticity. There’s nothing flashy or new here, but that’s resolutely not the point. This is 39 minutes of enjoyable and pleasurable Death Metal that makes no grand claims and simply revels in the bloodshed.

Like the aforementioned split, I really like this; simple and effective. I bet they’re great live.

Check them out.

Dementia 13 – Ways of Enclosure (Review)

Dementia 13 are a Death Metal band from Portugal. This is their début album.

Sometimes only Old-School Death Metal will do. Yes, it’s always nice to hear the latest in TechDeath fusion, or the latests sophisticated Avant-Garde Black Metal opus, or some new-fangled take on Doom…but sometimes you just want something primitive, ugly and swamped in Death Metal’s rich heritage. For times like that, there’s bands like this.

This is horror-inspired music, with each track finding inspiration in a different film.

With a decent sound that means the guitars sound good and heavy while the bass is actually audible, Dementia 13 take a festering, decaying sub-genre by storm and kick up some dust and muck while they’re at it.

This is a very satisfying release. The tasty riffs and deep, growling vocals hit the right spots and Ways of Enclosure is full of grim, filthy Death Metal that manages to capture the spirit of the Old-School style perfectly without sounding stale or tired, as so many do.

The singer’s voice is perfectly gruff but still surprisingly legible. His throaty growl tears along over the steady pace of the music, while the guitars throw out riff after riff and dark tidings aplenty.

Fans of Bolt Thrower, Massacre, Entombed, Autopsy and Six Feet Under will find a lot to enjoy with Dementia 13.

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?