Review Summary: The album brutal death metal needed, but not the one it deserved.
Brutal death metal is bashed for valid reasons. Unoriginal, bland, and mediocre copies of the same repetitive sound structures can be found in abundance within it. With the sub genre's unimaginative history, it’s hard to imagine a band that would actually use it for good. Luckily, there is one band that used it to the fullest: Goemagot.
Through Eradication, Goemagot have managed to give a whole new take on the genre. While the first half is great, sludgy, and straightforward brutal death metal, the second half adopts a never before seen outlook on it. The creative use of metal’s other sub genres on the former paints the album with originality. Whether it's the fantastic interplay between the bass and the rest of the band on “Stump” or the frantic black metal-like riffs on “Let Them Become Soil,” the band succeeds at making the album an invigorating listen. The creativeness is paired with an excellent sense of music itself, since the band organizes the sections in such a way to exploit them to the maximum. However, the whole album’s peak is definitely the closer, “Beg For Extinction.” The almost seven minute behemoth borrows from black metal once again, but this time also fuses it with melodic death metal, grind and sludge for an astoundingly heavy combination. Massive riffs utterly envelop one’s senses every single second; it feels like the earth is swallowing you into obliteration. Said track is so gigantic, it really does seem like the first half of Eradication was building up to it, a mere setup in a bigger plan.
As the track fades into nothingness, a subtle echo answers its call, lonely, with little souls to hear it. The echo not only acknowledges Goemagot’s fantastic work, but also thanks them for being an unsung innovator of brutal death metal itself. There is no way to know if said echo will speak of them ever again. Nevertheless, the loyal will be waiting for its call.
