Review Summary: Solid, riffy brutal death metal which manages to pack enough melodic substance into their music to stand out.
One can endlessly state the problems with the brutal death metal scene at the moment, but simply, this album succeeds where many of its competitors do not through a good variety of tempos and a surprising amount of melody and harmonies that keep the ever-present brutality under check.
The instrumental performance on this album is pretty flawless. The guitars manage to fly through technical riffs which vary from quick and atonal to... quick and melodic, while also being capable of slowing down for some brutal but not excessive slams. The bass does a good job with keeping up and is reasonably audible throughout, although it mostly copies the excellent guitar riffs. The drums are excellent in both execution and sound: fast, tight, overpoweringly powerful and crisp, with an excellent variety of speeds and excellent use of both double kick drums and blast beats. The vocals are also solid, mostly consisting of low growls that fit the music appropriately and don't get too carried away with pig squeals and the like. The clear but aggressive production helps to keep everything together and provides a lot of bite to the sound without making the individual parts lose focus.
The album's strength lies in its general consistent quality of riffs. From
Bloodlust's quick tremolo picked intro riff, to
Axe To Mouth's quick grind and off time grooves, to
Infection Induced Erection's entertaining melodic sections, the album manages to consistently provide a fairly varied approach with enough hooks and lasting power to stay entertaining throughout. The usual problems with brutal death metal (a lack of variety, excessive use of slams) are present here, however, but not to an extent that it prevents the riffs from sticking in your head; what's more, the general speed of the album keeps it feeling far more energetic than many of its competitors, and the album's production allows for the actually intense moments to feel intense, contrary to many competitor albums. Still, one may find the album perhaps a bit too repetitive for many repeat listens, and some of the second half might feel a bit familiar - either more tempo variety or a shorter album length could possibly benefit this album, since it can get tiring through its continued intensity.
Still, for its flaws, this is undoubtedly one of the stronger brutal death metal albums of recent times and its standout riff-work certainly guarantees that it makes an entertaining listen for even those who don't particularly like the sub-genre.
Recommended Tracks:
Infection Induced Erection
Bloodlust
Scourge Of The Christians
Exhibit Of Repugnance
Axe To Mouth
