Fondlecorpse - Dark Contagion (2017)

Dark Contagion is the sophomore full-length outing from Dutch death metallers Fondlecorpse, who released a record some years before it that was notable for the myriad horror movie references in the artwork. As with Creaturegore, this album is an exhibition in chunky death metal with memorable artwork, however it has some differences from its predecessor in that they're not simply cooking up nostalgia, but trying to take a more structured approach. The song titles still sound like a plethora of horror/sci-fi B-movies: "Terrorvision", "Bugstomper", "The Mutant Chronicles" and "Lunar Cycle Maniac", so it's not like they've abandoned the themes that inspired them, but this is not at all a sillier sounding effort within the genre, it's much more well-rounded.

Perhaps part of that is that the core member, vocalist Silvester 'The Goregnome" has recruited the insanely prolific Rogga Johansson for the guitars this time, a guy who makes the whole genre seem like old hate, as he literally brushes his teeth with death metal, butters his death metal for breakfast. With a focused role as he has on Dark Contagion, he delivers a bevy of churning, hammering riffs which aren't terribly different than what he's performing in Revolting or Ribspreader, but in support of the Goregnome's gruesome, drawn out growls. This record kicks hard with its great Swedish guitar tone, thick and pumpkin bass lines, and Rogga also likes to spit forth these simplistic, almost melancholic leads that work well as a contrast against the meaty charge of the rhythms. I definitely get some vibes of Cannibal Corpse or Severe Torture, only not as complex as those two can occasionally get, with the lower octave chords and the percussive marriage of the brute vocals and riffs.

But those airy, sad little leads, the use of samples, and the overall aesthetic definitely hearken more to that whole Razorback scene of bands, or also that West cost 'fun' death metal stuff from the US. Crypticus, Blood Revolt, Splatterhouse, Frightmare, Ghoul, Cannabis Corpse. Fondlecorpse might not conform to strictly to any one of their sounds, but they belong in the same conversation, a self-awareness and deep love of genre capitalized upon by good performances of quality musicians. Dark Contagion is not an album that stands to win any accolades for its genre, but if you're into death metal without pretention or excess polish, you can take this one off the shelf, pop it into your CD player and have a pretty good time listening through it.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://fondlecorpse.bandcamp.com/music

Vektor/Cryptosis - Transmissions of Chaos (2021)

 Transmissions of Chaos is the first Vektor release since the band's troubles and dissolution in 2016, and they've chosen to share it with the comparable Dutch act Cryptosis, who were poised to release a pretty good debut in Bionic Swarm that same year. The pairing is a good one, both bands having a fusion of technical thrash and death elements, without sounding quite the same, but complementary to the other, which is more than I can say for a lot of bands that decide to share wax (or tape) like this. The futurist/sci-fi/cyborg thematic elements also jive pretty well in unison, and if there were any hope for a New Wave of Science Fiction Death/Thrash, these would certainly be two of the flag carriers launching their vessels out in the cosmos.

The Arizonans had been doing it for years, after all, and their contribution here pretty much picks up from where they left off on the great Terminal Redux. Kinetic riffing passages powered by David's nasty vocals, flurries of clinical melodies that give it that cosmic or otherworldly feel, hearkening back to Voivod although Vektor doesn't quite play with the same guitar language that Piggy created for the Canadians; instead it's more of a cutting edge progressive metal style with a bit more consonance to it, lots of lines reminiscent of Florida's Cynic and other bands of that ilk. The tunes here are not their catchiest, and a little chaotic in how there is the flux between the cleaner guitars and the space-shark-like frenzy in "Activate", or the cleaner vocal sections of "Dead by Dawn", a more elaborate track on which they're trying something new. Interesting material, and the bass playing of Stephen Coon is a standout, along with the estimable duo of DiSanto and Nelson, but probably better to have been committed to this limited release rather than a proper new full album.

I think it is Cryptosis who have penned the more cohesive material for this, and I was really feeling the hyper-riffing and ravenous barks of "Decypher" that break out into some catchy, Middle Eastern sounding melodies. The drumming is sick here, the production explosive and it just feels more impressive as a song than anything on 'Side A'. "Prospect of Immortality" is another strong piece, slower but longer and more involved (the second side is set up quite like Vektor's). I also loved the leads, the bass tone, honestly these are two of the band's better tracks...but that's also where Transmissions loses a bit of value. Both of these would appear on Bionic Swarm, and though they do match well enough with Vektor, they match a lot better with themselves, and are thus better experienced on that full-length. Assuming DiSanto and company might remix or re-record or include them with a future release, either as part of the core track list or bonus content, this split might become completely irrelevant. So bear that in mind, but if you're a big fan of the Arizonans, and this is the only place it's ever available, it might just be worth it.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/VektorOfficial

https://cryptosis.net/

Asphyx - Necroceros (2021)

Along with Bolt Thrower, Asphyx certainly holds claim to its simple, churning death metal style, and obviously it's one that has some legs to it, since you're hearing new bands like Chainsword of Frozen Soul come along and do their best to impersonate it, often to great underground success. Necroceros doesn't really distance itself from the three albums before it, the entirety of the later Martin van Drunen tenure with the band, to the point that songs could hop between them without anyone noticing other than marginal details in the production, but it doesn't really need to. They've got a sound set in stone, their fanbase doesn't really want anything else, and I absolutely can relate to that dependability, since a large number of bands I listen to practice the same risk-averse approach to their material.

I'm not saying the Dutchmen are writing pop songs here, obviously, there's nothing safe about the loud, slow grinding bombast of these tunes, as it wasn't safe ever during their career, or on the three records from the very similar Hail of Bullets that Martin and Paul were also involved in. But having already been a fan of those three records, and some of the earlier Asphyx, I feel a constant craving for the band to try a little more on for size. Keep the grisly vocals, keep the enormous tones in the guitars, and the pudgy, distorted bass-lies, but screw around more with rhythmic dynamics, build some riffs that are a little beyond these assembly line structures that they've been cranking out for 30 years. I can only dream how cool it would be for some Slayer-like evil harmonies to bust out among these meatier rhythm guitars, or perhaps just imbue the basic chords with some more thrashing, slightly more involved sequences, just to change things up, striking the perfect balance like the German band Scalpture does on their amazing Feldwarts (very similar style also).

But much of Necroceros just sounds like what I've heard before. Bruising, efficient, loyal and maybe even stubborn to a fault. A couple moments stick out, like the majestic embedded melody of the chords that set up "Knights Templar Stand" and rocking "Yield or Die", or the slowly sinking wreckage of "In Blazing Oceans" with its little chugged triplets that don't always go where you predict, and end up a little warmer than you might be used to. The Dutchmen tip-toe into new waters where it might befit them to take a more direct plunge. Again, Necroceros is perfectly adequate on its own, because it will always have that massive wall of production to fall back against, which can cause even the most minimalistic riff progressions to explode ears, but it's simply never as great as it could be. Having said that, I'd pick it over a Deathhammer of Incoming Death, and anyone digging those records, or For Victory, or Crypt of Ice, or any of Memoriam's stuff, will feast on the fleshy guitars, but I'm still yearning days when I won't just consider Asphyx 'good', but mandatory. 

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.asphyx.nl/

Asphyx - Incoming Death (2016)

Three albums in to Asphyx's reunion with Martin van Drunen, and I feel like you know what you're getting to get when you spin one of these things. Crushing, basic death metal, straight from the early 90s in craftmanship, but blessed with the advancements in production that can make it sound absolutely enormous by comparison to so many of those seminal works. The Dutch act has long maintained a very workmanlike build to its material, the riffs don't really sound very evil or atmospheric or even that catchy, but they bring the brawn rather than the brains, and for that reason they're always listenable, even if I couldn't pick many of these tracks out from a selection of those on the surrounding albums. Another band that, like a Bolt Thrower or Obituary, are quite content following the same path without ever distracting themselves with some attractive side-trails.

Incoming Death is almost as predictably named as it sounds, but if I'm being truthful, there is no amount of redundancy that can't be overcome by how Martin's gruesome grunts interact with the mix on these guitars. He sounds just as fleshy as they do, and he's always been one of the more distinct throats in the field, even though my preference will always be for his presence on the first two Pestilence albums, because the music there was absolutely fucking perfect to support him. Asphyx doesn't always seem like they take a long time to put the material together, just stringing together a standard supply of chords and letting the enormity of that guitar tone do the rest of the work. You do get a variety, from the grindier sway of tremolo picked riffs in "Candiru" and "It Came from the Skies" to the more measured, doomed gait of "The Grand Denial" or snail-like grooves of "Subterra Incognita", and that goes a long way to curb off any monotony, especially with the nice occasional lead or melodic guitar line for an added dimension to the atmosphere.

The mix here, from a little-known Swedish musician and producer named 'Dan', is exactly what the material needs to fatten out its simplicity, so that the tones can district from the lack of technicality or complexity in any of the riff patterns. The bass throbs with a thick distortion, allowing it to pop out occasionally from the tank-tread weight of the rhythm guitars, and the drums keep things pretty simple, but rock out just right against the crush. The songs can get a little boring if you're expecting any surprises, but they do happen once in awhile, like the piano finale to "Subterra Incognita", or that HUGE bass groove in the depths of "Death: The Only Immortal". Overall, Incoming Death is another win for the band, though it not all that much more memorable than the two albums before it, Death...the Brutal Way and Deathhammer; marginally better recording, but the tunes don't dazzle beyond the superficiality of their massive crunch.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

https://www.asphyx.nl/

Wesenwille - III: The Great Light Above (2022)

After a quality sophomore effort last year and a reissue of their debut with some additional live material, the Dutch act Wesenwille is already firing up a third onslaught with some of their most savage material up front. The Great Light Above is another album one might fit snugly into the 'urban black metal' mold, its vibes do not holler at you from the side of a snowy mountain slope or a canopy of pines, but from the shadows of depressive cityscapes, shadowy back-streets throughout the history of strife-fraught human civilization. Musically it's just as gray as its two predecessors, and that can certainly limit the experience if you're seeking something more colorful and melodic, not that this album is void of such techniques, only that they are delivered in such a starkly desperate, dissonant armor which a nearly industrial certainty (though the music itself could not be dubbed industrial).

Atmospheric trapping abound like organs that help round the record out and give it a fuller body, but for the most part this is just savage, straightforward traditional blasting black metal which uses a lot of nuanced guitar techniques to dress up its tremolo-picked progressions that they feel bolder and richer than you're going to find off your garden-variety worship of Mayhem or Dark Funeral. There is always some direction this band is thrusting in, and when they break it up to slower, churning rhythms as in the track "Transformation", they become even more interesting and frankly, rather original. Would these components stand out as much if not placed against the scathing, bleak black metal battery? Probably not, and that's why this is yet another record which confidently gets its hooks under your skin and continues to pull until your outer layers are stripped, because it's just got the right balance between full force momentum and sparser, almost ambient segues which permit pensive escape.

If it suffers from anything, it might be a little of the redundantly dissonant black metal that we've heard so often these last 10-15 years from the wave of bands that follow the modern French masters, I mean you can tell their albums are going to go that way just by looking at the black/white artwork. It's a bit samey with their earlier efforts, sure, but looking at The Great Light Above from any sort of objective angle, it's sharp, raspy, cleanly produced, well-rendered and never lacking for effort, further cementing Wesenwille as one of the best up-and-coming genre acts on the Dutch scene, with ease.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] 

https://wesenwille.bandcamp.com/

Pestilence - Exitivm (2021)

If Exitivm has one particular flaw to it, its that for most if its playtime it is revisiting or recycling a lot of the riffing tropes that originated around Testimony of the Ancients and Spheres, and that Patrick Mameli has also been more-or-less revising on all of the reunion era Pestilence records. I have seen this complaint launched at the band a thousand times for the last decade, and it does hold some truth to it, although it might be a little harsh to criticize this one group for doing so, when other legacy acts in the same medium are given praise for repeating the same riffs or records ad infinitum. But sure, a lot of the sequences here are modifications, half step intervals shifts or re-grooved riffs from the band's own lexicon, and that's the one hurdle that might hold it back from achieving the level of their formative masterpieces from before they adopted this approach in their 90s era...

But that's the ONE flaw for me, because Exitivm is otherwise a completely fucking awesome, exciting album that I must have listened through two dozen times since I got it, and I'd probably have gone more if I weren't constantly splitting my time between the tens of thousands of older records and the ceaseless flood of great new releases in the expanded metal-verse. This is a triumph for the Dutch-centered act which takes a lot of the lessons from albums like Spheres, Hadeon and Doctrine and then sharpens them into the best selection of chugs, grooves and atmospheric touches the band assembled this century (so far). Knuckle-dragging, jazzy chords splayed out in insanely catchy hooks, even if a bit predictable, while Mameli slathers over them all some of his grossest-sounding vocals yet, to the degree that I think he's just about as disgusting and distinct as van Drunen was in the old days, and the fact that Pestilence are writing such neatly-honed, almost accessible material makes them stand out that much more.

It's not so uncommon for Mameli to assemble entirely new lineups for albums in the way that Chuck Schuldiner messed around with, but this new unit locks together like perfectly oiled machinery, with Michiel van der Plicht splitting my head open with his clockwork, brutal beats. The synthed out intros and segues provide a nice escape from the hammering force of the dominant death metal, and I'd say they were the best of this sort the band has ever included, superior to the little instrumental bits on Testimony or the weirdscapes on Spheres. Because they're just better integrated into the tunes, offering a little escape and relief from the blunt force trauma that you're about to be faced with, and then even adding a little to those very brute moments ("Internicionem"). All the tracks are fairly quick, with just a few rhythmic ideas in them, normal for Pestilence, but really well plotted, and the fusion-like leads are also taut and well-executed, giving the compositions even more dimensional flair.

Ambient hook. Beating. Alien hook. Beating. Repeat for a tight 39 minutes and lather with Latin song titles to create a uniform artistic vision which is both pretentious and loveable. There was not a single moment on this record that I was ever bored or less-than engaged, regardless of whether the riff motifs felt similar to their past works, or a little more novel (I'd say this is about a 60% to 40% ratio). The production is bright and perfectly fit to this futuristic sci-fi dystopian death, and it's got to rank among my favorite Pestilence works besides the obvious first two that remain high points in all of metal and music. Mameli might not be the best spokesperson for his own band these 30 years, but when it comes down to the music I am still positively thrilled by the combination of groove and cataclysmic, cosmic tension and anxiety that this causes me. Sure I've seen this steamroller before in pictures, but it still runs me over just the same.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

http://www.pestilence.nl/

Wesenwille - I: Wesenwille & Live at Roadburn (2022)

I had the opportunity last year to cover this Dutch band's sophomore outing II: A Material God, and now the band's label Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions has done a solid with not only a reissue of their scarce debut, but also pairing it up with an additional live disc. As I had mentioned on this record's follow-up, Wesenwille approaches its black metal with a visual concept that simple reeks of bleak, urban despair and decay, one that you might think lends itself to a more industrialized or electronic instrumentation, perhaps some droning which would visually match the presentation, instead performed with a more traditionally organic approach to its genre which is complemented only by a degree of jangling, dissonant post-metal or post-hardcore augmentation.

I'll be blunt: this debut is even better than its own successor, a flurry of rapid riffing and drumming, tortured vocals that don't depend too strictly on monotonous rasping, and a great use of guitars as tools of atmosphere and not just riffing...there are spacey guitar segues with samples used as narrative, shining and beautiful guitars that would absolutely satisfy those looking for a more -gaze vibe within their black metal, and then these slews of almost hyperactive, punchy thrash riffing ("Prosopopoeia") that they'll unleash before putting the pedal to the metal for the album's peak hostility, its blasting segments dowsed with spiteful, dissonant chord series. All five of the tracks are threatening, haunting, and sometimes beautiful and I can hear easily why this album deserved to be put out there into more hands along with the second.

The Roadburn festival set takes three of the debut tracks, and two from II: A Material God, and blends them seamlessly into a devastating set, which if I'm being honest, sounds just as good if not better than the studio interpretations. There's a vividness or brightness here, especially to the vocals and guitars, which is a little different than the dimmer album versions, and yet it's all performed with razor perfection, and in fact some of the vocals, like the angsty barks in "The Churning Masses", sound even more impressive. I don't know if people in the audience there had a lot of experience with these guys in advance, but they hopefully came away with the desire to track down their stuff. This sounds so great...the bass, the details to the atmospheric guitars, even the sample stuff. Two albums might be a brief amount of time before you slam out your first live album, but in this case it's exceptionally captured, and adds nothing but value to the experience of the debut. If you like bleak, expressive black metal and haven't yet heard Wesenwille, effective without being needlessly complex, conventional only to a point where the modernism sneaks in through the cracks, this is well worth tracking down.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/Wesenwille/

Picture - Every Story Needs Another Picture (1986)

I was hardly any hesher hunk to take advantage of the 80s hair metal sex and fashion, I was too young and dweeby at the time (and the latter does remain an apt description for me now), but something within me always stirs, partly from attraction and partly from laughter, at all these smutty old album covers. She's got a picture...of the band Picture...and she's stalking some private eye dude down the steamy city street in nylons, high heels and leather skirt. And it's on Backdoor records! If you used this as a cover today, I'd still think you were awesome, but there was something so sleazy and entertaining about it back in the day, and I like the color scheme and it strangely sort of mirrors the colors of their better known, more evil looking 1983 album Eternal Dark.

These Dutchmen are best known for that early 80s batch of records, at the crossroads between NWOBHM style heavy metal and more mainstream hard rock, which put them on trajectory for a level of international renown that they sadly didn't ever quite achieve. It's kind of cool to have a couple Picture albums around if you're showing off your old vinyl collection, but even then it's not a group I ever see a lot of people having discussions over. Every Story Needs Another Picture was already the group's sixth album, and it certainly seemed too timid in a year that was producing records like Master of Puppets, Somewhere in Time and Reign in Blood, but listening back on this one now with a fresh appreciation, it was actually a bit more busy and developed than some of their earlier, more straightforward stuff, and it has the sort of authentic 80s atmosphere to it that a lot of bands today fall over themselves trying to emulate. This album effectively sounds as it looks, something you'd chase into the urban nightscape, blaring out of the open windows of your Corvette or Trans Am or whatever was popular to drive in Holland at the time.

The guitars have a heavy foundation of hard rock and blues to them, sometimes using effects as you'd expect from a group like The Dire Straits on their ginormous hit, or ZZ Top, but just as often you've got a traditional feel that reminds me a lot of Whitesnake throughout the 80s. There are some synths here to give it that radio appeal, but also a lot of organs and such which also summon up some Uriah Heep or Deep Purple references. I'd venture that tunes like "Burning for Your Love" even leap off into a mix of mildly prog rock influences with the keyboard lead,s mixed with AOR arena rock for the predictable but functional verse guitar riffs. Vocalist Bert Heerink, who had taken over for Pete Lovell on the previous year's Traitor, has a nice, slicing high pitched voice which is smooth at encompassing all the melodies required over this material. The album does suffer from some softer rock anthems like "Stay With Me" or dull rockers like "She Was Made for Lovin'", but where they get a little more bombastic and intense like the first track "Battle Cruiser" and its cool opening choirs, or "Moving Down the Line", it's quite good stuff..."You Took My Money, You Took My Pride" and "Stand Back for the People in Charge" are also quite fun, the latter even with hints of Boston or Zebra in it.

I just wish there were more ambition here. I think if you like group such as Lion or Dokken, there is a chunk of this album worth your time, and a kernel of their sound was trying to go a little bit further than just the mundane butt-rock that they were undoubtedly pressured towards at the time, because it was either write some giant radio or hair metal hits, or get utterly fucking trampled by the heavier strains of the genre that were hitting in full-force by that time. Every Story Needs Another Picture does not accomplish either of those ends, but as an artifact of the 80s it's not bad if you have a soft nostalgia for AOR or lighter metal that really treads the line.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

https://www.pictureband.nl/

Wesenwille - II: A Material God (2021)

Perhaps my expectations were thrown off as I was looking over the dim and depressive packaging for this Dutch duo's sophomore album, but I was pleasantly surprised by the neurotic, fulfilling brand of black metal that the pair get up to, with a far broader dynamic range and sense of ambition than you'd think at first glance. While they do possess some traits familiar to their outward aesthetics...streaming, melancholic melodies splashed all over the place, and a general sense of brooding oppression that hangs like an evening din to the upper atmosphere of the recording, this is very riff-based stuff with a potential to explode one moment and then grow more pensive the next, with some bleak and enveloping ambient segues that fill in the gaps between the more guitar oriented fare.

Every song on this album has something going for it, for example "Opulent Black Song" with its ambience sprouting the bleeding, ringing guitars, slower tremolo pickings and chords to spruce them all up and create this wistful soundscape that crushes into you like the realization that you just lost someone or something important. Or a tune like "A Material God" itself which goes straight on the attack with its zipping dissonant guitar-work redolent of their countrymen Dodecahedron, or perhaps France's Deathspell Omega. The two really get a balance here of more unhinged, frenzied composition and then more controlled matter with some samples or slower climbs to aggression, and it adds up to a satisfactory overall experience. The vocals have a desperate, louder rasp to them with an edge of sustained growling which fits the brightness of the eerier guitar progressions quite well, and in fact it's the same musician also performing the moody and textured guitars, as well as the some thumping bass lines which support the melodies with some needed muddle to offset their comparative sparseness.

The drums are fairly simple through a lot of the steadier moments, with nice little kick fills and grooves that contribute to the spaciousness; however, on short notice they can transform into forceful blasting and follow the schizophrenic nature of the writing. They do have a somewhat mechanical feel to them, which almost lends the album a slightly post-modern/industrial feel on the low end, and I don't envy that they have to compete off against some truly catchy riff sequences that are, at least for me, the most poignant and memorable part of the affair. In sum, this is a pretty great record that hopefully won't be lost in the deluge of basement or bedroom black metal because its reach never exceeds its grasp, and it kept me cycling back to its nutty rhythms and the fresh atmosphere it excels with even if I can't really say that it's devastatingly original. If you like your darkness bleak, manic and beautiful then this is yet another of the Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions stable well worth your time.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/Wesenwille/

Nailgun Massacre - Boned, Boxed and Buried (2015)

Going by the name and appearance of this album alone, you'd think Dutchmen Nailgun Massacre were probably a goregrind band, or at least a Cannibal Corpse-styled brutal death band. So when I spun their sophomore album Boned, Boxed and Buried, I was a little surprised to find that they play a very pure strain of late 80s death metal with primarily American influences. Slow to moderate  paced, using a voluminous production style and simpler riffing patterns that go straight for your jugular. While there's little to be said for any sort of originality here I'll have to give them some credit at taking something so familiar and them putting a fresh, bloodied stamp on it as if they could have released this back in 1989 and it would receive consideration among some classics.

Obituary is the closest reference I can make, simpler and grooving rhythm patterns that are potent nonetheless when splattered with the vocals. A little bit of a punkish attitude. Thread that influence with a little Swedish death & roll, and some well-crafted leads and evil melodies which recount classic Chuck Schuldiner. I'd also compare this to Six Feet Under, or rather, a Six Feet Under that didn't generally suck so much, because of that emphasis on rock-like rhythms, as well as one half of the vocals, which sound a lot like Chris Barnes grunts. The others that are often paired up with these are like a poor man's John Tardy of Obituary, and it's often quite hilarious what the two sound like in unison, an added layer of silliness that occasionally drags the album down a notch; especially when the Tardy-a-like seems to almost crack up at the end of a few lines. There's also a notable Autopsy influence, just in the massive, raw tones, the abrasion and ugliness that the record balls up like a cleaver-clenching fist and then beats on you before making some choice cuts.

The drums thunder along here, adding a lot of power to the simpler chugging rhythms, and the bass is also really enormous sounding and gives the whole affair a bowel-rumbling effect that is made even more fucking awesome when they cast out some simple, evil melody over the top as in the depths of "I Bury the Hatchet In Your Face". There are some screams and samples and narrations to further emphasize the themes in the lyrics, though once again they can feel a little too goofy if you just want your face flayed off by the great music, but not to the point they become a dealbreaker. Production is really great across the instruments, but I think perhaps the vocals are just a little too loud in general, and highlight some of those imperfections which in this case don't offer much positive charm.

As you can tell by the collage cover artwork these guys are huge on cult horror and exploitation flicks, so murderers and cannibals abound in the lyrics of Nailgun Massacre and that fits the mold well. Those who scoff at the simpler death metal of olde might not get much out of this, the leads and atmospheres created by the melodies are all very good, but otherwise the rhythms are so simplistic and bare-bones that they don't really offer any flashy surprises. Boned, Boxed and Buried channels film inspirations from the 70s and 80s through the death metal of the 80s and earlier 90s, and does a pretty cracking good job of it, with a handful of over the top moments that might have been snipped from the slasher reel.

Horror-meter: Seven out of...does your mom know you're up this late?

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] 

Arcane - Cascade (1997)

Nothing says 'death metal' to me quite like a couple dim mountains covered in flowing waterfalls, and these...delicious...logo and title fonts chosen by Dutch unknowns Arcane upon their sole full length recording, fittingly entitled Cascade. 1997 was hardly the dawn for the genre, hundreds if not thousands of death metal bands had logos that took the effort of actually designing a logo, Displeased records was not exactly a newcomer and had released or licensed a good number of albums from better known bands. So, superficially, whatever other qualities Cascade might possess are immediately muted by its outward appearance, its amateurish presentation. That is not ultimately the sole criteria by which I judge an album, mind you, and I've got a number of classics in my collection which are externally hideous, and artistically ill-conceived, but when I'm out combing the dark back alleys and moldy sub dungeons of the underground for hidden gems to cover, something that looks like this hardly breeds confidence...

After listening to the actual music, those low expectations are unfortunately never exceeded. I will admit that the production Arcane achieve here was a little more solid than I suspected. This was basically an early 90s-style death/thrash band, ala Sepultura, trapped in the latter part of a decade in which the genre's evolving brutality and innovation had taken center stage. Wouldn't be much of a problem, if this group wasn't so bloody boring at that style. There's a little atmosphere generated in some of the bridge and lead sections, and the guitar tone is adequate and appreciable, but the structure of the chord progressions and chugging selections are exceedingly familiar, in some sections (like the end of "Open Minds") where it feels like the most banal, dawn-of-S.O.D. level mosh action was a goal to keep any perceived gig audiences moving along, rubbing muscles and bone with another to neglect the fact that what they were dancing off to was so mundane and typical. The drumming is tight without ever becoming too extreme, the bass lines are fluid and flabby enough to thrive at times when you can catch them below the guitars. The vocals have a sort of soulless gruff Cavalera feel to them, though in tracks like "The Hatred in My Confused Mind" they'll throw on some distortion and effects to create something a little more interesting.

Whenever the band picks up the pace to engage the more flightly, thrashing styled riffs, the music is instantly given a small burst of life that leads me to believe they would have been far better off just recording an entire record in that style. There's enough of a clinical sense of melody to give that aesthetic a good balance, but another issue with the record is that it just doesn't stay put long enough in some niche of sound to develop it. For instance, "Welfarestate; Slavestate" moves on to a grooving chord-driven style which seems like a mix of early Green-era Sepultura with Suicidal Tendencies, while "Threatening Me" sounds like pure thrash with the dingier, dirtier vocals and a crossover vibe. For an album that feels like it should have best been marketed for its Sepultura-meets-Creepmime style, it feels inconsistent and noncommittal. Not exactly incompetent, or awful, but the dumbed down rhythm guitar riffing and the lack of really interesting surprises around any corner just make it too easy to overlook in a scene that spawned acts like Sinister, Asphyx, Creepmine, or the godly Pestilence. It seemed dated even for 20 years ago, but not in any memorable or cool 'retro' fashion.

Verdict: Indifference [5/10] 

Pestilence - Hadeon (2018)

If it weren't painfully obvious from the cover artwork, Hadeon is a clear homage to Pestilence's early 90s output, namely Testimony of the Ancients and its jazzier, stranger successor Spheres. In this it draws some comparisons also to their divisive 2009 reunion effort Resurrection Macabre, on which there were clearly some stylistic parallels to Testimony, albeit handled in a more methodical, brutal and explosive way that I happened to really enjoy. Unlike that album, however, Mameli and company have done away with the idiosyncratic barkings of the song titles within the fore and aft of each track. Unlike its true 1991 precursor, you also won't a whole roster of experimental vignettes to distract you from the meat of the metal, and that actually ramps up the album's effectiveness.

That's not to say that some experimentation doesn't exist...like the intro, or the instrumental interlude "Sudivisions", upon which bassist Tilen Hudrap flies all over his frets until we become dizzied by his absolute mastery of that instrument. The first moment of "Astral Projection" is a strange robotic sort of proggy narrative which wouldn't have been out of place on Spheres, without the production gaffes that many complained about on that album. For most of its playtime, however, Hadeon is a relatively straightforward affair that plays it safe for fans of the aforementioned albums, but occasionally rips out a riffing progression, melody or technique that hasn't been beaten to death already. To those who abhorred their previous, mechanical groove-laden records Doctrine and Obsideo, I think this might prove a welcome relief, for while it does often feel like its paraphrased from songs they've already written, that dark, overall jazzy vibe to the sliding chords combined with the brute vocals and leads that hearken back to the fusion elements the band was so beholden in the 90s still feels fresh and unique enough to stand out against a wide landscape of bands that never quite took the carrot.

The production is punchy and polished, akin to its direct predecessors, which pairs up well with the busy but clean bass-lines which are a joy to hear throughout. Mameli still might not have the same bloodsoaked charisma as van Drunen during the band's fantastic, formative phase, but he is more than adequate to the task, adding a nice little grueling sustain to many of the lines that provides a cool counterbalance to the much tidier tension of the riffs. Septimiu Hărşan's drums are likewise up to par, an intense but controlled performance that loads in just enough fills for propulsion to what are a generally mid-paced set of rhythms, yet he could fly off the handle at will, and the double kick is sounding as effortless as you could want it on any modern death metal recording. But most important for me, is that Hadeon grew on me across successive listens, easing me out of the whole 'well this just sounds derivative' category and into genuine enjoyment. There hasn't been a Pestilence studio album that I've actually disliked, but this is far more in the direction of where I think they 'need to be' than the last two, with more fluid and intricate musicianship that they had eschewed to attempt that more pounding, grooving, hypnotic effect. The songs aren't unanimously memorable, but I think if they use this as the groundwork to launch this particular style onto an even more insane, intense plain, then I'm looking forward to the flight.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.pestilence.nl

Hooded Priest - The Hour Be None (2017)

In fairness, I'm going to state up front that doom metal is one of the subgenres in which I find it the most difficult to be impressed by a new record. This is partly because it operates on a slower and more limited riff palette, harder to innovate in, and party because a lot of bands seem to proxy tone and heaviness for actually composing good tunes that, you know, make you feel doomed. There are at least two ways around this. One is delving into a more progressive side of doom and sludge which uses a lot more instrumentation, a higher riff count and a more interesting sense of melody. Another, when you're going the straight, trad doom route, is that you've just got to be better than almost everyone else, and this is the much harder path to walk, the one that the Netherlands' Hooded Priest is walking for their sophomore effort The Hour Be None.

And while they certainly arrive at the end of that path, they unfortunately don't do so in such a timely matter. Perhaps the great intro this album, 'Dolen - Exiting the Real' raised my expectations a bit too high. It's a swelling, droning ambient piece that has little in common with the rest of the album, but damn is it ominous and really sets the anticipation level to have your soul crushed. Once the metal proper actually arrives, though, it's rather dry and predictable, which is not a great combination when you're moving along at this pace. That's not to say they pick the most generic riffs available, but when you're putting together 8-10 minute tracks as a rule, even having a few moments where the energy is lacking or the doom riffs don't sound that sad and evil can cripple the rest. Hoodest Priest are not a band lacking in dynamics, between mid-era Cathedral hustle of "These Skies May Break" or "Herod Within", to the more lurching mechanics which land somewhere between Candlemass and My Dying Bride, you get a good range here...they're not trying to endlessly repeat themselves or bore you at all, but once in awhile, like when faced with the intro riff to "Call for the Hearse", excitement was hard to come by.

Also not a huge fan of the vocals. They've got a wavering edginess to them, but sometimes this is obscured by a goofier, more conversational tone that he flexes between the mid and higher range, and it doesn't really live up to the music beneath it, even where that itself is mundane. I'm all for these sorts of 'honest' doom singers who use natural tones in the Ozzy tradition rather than just growling the whole time, but where it works in some cases (Blizarro, Reverend Bizarre, etc), it's a little inconsistent, also the more glaring when you've got such a long tune to cover. Nothing awful, mind you, but just awkward enough that it detracts from the overall quality. Now, with all this said, you might think I hated The Hour Be None, and that's not the case. It's competent enough, and even fairly cool throughout "These Skies May Break", my fave among these cuts, but there were points during tunes like "Call of the Hearse" and especially the 10 and a half minute "Locust Reaper" where I was phasing out completely from what was happening. If you're a true addict for the style, and dig a good cross-section of the bands I've name-dropped, or a few others like Solitude Aeternus, Dread Sovereign, Cardinal's Folly or Memory Garden, then check it out; you might get more from it than I did.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://hoodedpriest.org/

Bullcreek - Osschaert (2017)

Osschaert is a rather simpler sort of death metal record that you won't hear very often these days, being that it doesn't conform too strictly to the dominant trends of the genre nor does it attempt to blow you over with any level of impressive technicality. This is primitive, choppy death loaded with basic hooks that keep you engaged without offering much nuance. I think a lot of listeners will draw some parallels to Amon Amarth, in how some of the riffs convey just the proper balance of glory and force, but I was feeling a real Asphyx or Hail of Bullets vibe for the most part, only with a vocalist more guttural and less distinct than Martin van Drunen. I also felt a few nods to other low-tech death metal bands of the past like Crack Up, Six Feet Under or Hypocrisy, but even more massive sounding.

This is in no small part due to the crushing rhythm guitar tone here, the closest approximation to their Dutch peers that I mentioned earlier, which grants even the most basic chord structure or voluptuous chugging a level of potency and attention-wrestling. They like to thread these meaty riffs with a lot of solos, which sound rather tiny by comparison but help fill another level of atmosphere, whether they spurt out some bluesier bits or structured harmonies wailing off into the night. The riffs can vary from more straight-up flows of melodic chords to slightly more charging, involved palm mute patterns and this creates a nice variation and contrast across the album that kept me absorbed, especially when they also toss in some melancholic, cleaner guitars or storming grooves. Even though the entirety of this debut remains within the bands stylistic portfolio, I feel like they give you enough fulfillment and deviation from predictability that you won't quite guess everything that follows, and so it just paints the record with a fresh coat of excitement, rather than the dull, dry plodding of a Jungle Rot.

Drumming and the low end in general is really tight here, but apart from affecting the mood of the record it's not all that impressive nor does it really stand out from the production of those guitars. As I mentioned, the vocals weren't super unique sounding, but they do their job if you just want no-frills growling which thrives on a lot of sustained lines which hover over the warlike battery and the fat of the rhythm tracks. Songs get fairly catchy but not to the point that I was thinking much about them after a few spins of the whole thing, and there's just a seasoned restraint about Osschaert which feels like they could fly further off the handle if the band wanted to, but they keep it reined in, and I was not all that surprised to find that the lineup was partially from the cult classic Dutch death metal act Burial, whose Relinquished Souls was a record I used to listen to from time to time. Bullcreek is not quite at the level of a Hail of Bullets, my favorite act from this scene performing death metal at this pacing and level of intricacy, but this is a solid enough start.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.facebook.com/BullcreekMetal/

Pestilence - Reflections of the Mind (2016)

I have little idea if there will be life post-Obsideo for Pestilence; one day it seems to be one story, and then a few months later there 'that's all she wrote'. But for Vic Records, this posthumous state continues with a slew of fan-targeted releases. First, The Dysentery Penance which gave you a chance to own the band's earlier demos where they were transitioning from their thrash metal foundation into. And now, Reflections of the Mind, a record that consists of demos and rehearsals from the second half of their Roadrunner signing, Testimony of the Ancients and Spheres. I'm not quite sure who it was that demanded the release of such a thing...perhaps it was Mameli, perhaps there really is some fan outcry for it that I'm blissfully unaware of, but the fact that it's re-mastered by Dan Swanö piqued my interest enough to dive into it and see what's become of these tunes...

And it's not awful, merely unnecessary. What you're getting here is a mash-up of a rawer form of Testimony of the Ancients and a Spheres that sounds somewhat more brash but coherent, mainly in how the death/thrashing riffs offset the experimental guitar effects that were the selling point for that underrated anomaly. Here, the tones and textures in tracks like "Searching the Soul" take on a more purely ambient hue, whether it's because they weren't finalized or 'plugged in' I cannot say. In a few cases, like "Changing Perspectives", it makes the finished product seem like more of a jumbled mess as the rhythm guitars are brought to the fore against the dryer melodies. A few tunes like "Level of Perception" and "Multiple Being" sounds really washed out with all the reverb, and others like "Land of Tears" are very obvious raw rehearsals and sound pretty crappy compared to the final products you heard on the full-length album. A few of the selections are surprises, like a rough take of "Echoes of Death" from Consuming Impulse or a clamorous cut called "Omens of Revelation" which seems to have been sliced up into other songs later.

There is probably a portion of Pestilence's audience, specifically those who scour the internet for or swap death metal demos through the mail, that would be thrilled by this or even develop a preference, not necessarily for the rehearsals which dominate a lot of the play length, but the raw/alternate takes on songs they might not have fully appreciated. I am just not one of them. Had this been a pure alt recording for Spheres, an album with some clear production issues, tweaked by Swanö, then it could have actually been worthwhile for me. But as it stands, the best I can say for it is that Reflections of the Mind might have a few takers, and it's at least better than some faceless Greatest Hits collection which just lifts the songs from the studio albums. This is something slightly different. That said, I do hope this and the Presence of the Pest live recording are the last of this glut of fan packages, and if there's to be more Pestilence it's new. Doctrine and Obsideo were hugely divisive albums, but at least that more mechanical, groove evolution of the band was slightly forward thinking.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10]

http://www.pestilence.nl/

Pestilence - Presence of the Pest (2016)

As the 'second winds' of classic 80s and 90s era death metal bands begin to blow out, or even if they don't, or they transform into 'third winds', I think it's only inevitable that we're going to see a lot more posthumous, throwback live LPs, demo or rehearsal collections that sell largely upon the nostalgia of their long time fans, or the historical cravings of newer listeners with a lot of disposable income or hard drive space. Presence of the Pest is one such example, releasing nearly a quarter century after the height of the band's powers, recorded in their home territory at the Dynamo Open Air, after what many would regard as their best or at least most popular album, Testimony of the Ancients.

Now, I do not count myself among that crowd, since their first two albums are a one-two punch combo that has not been surpassed for me over decades of death metal, but it stands to reason that this is the material most of their fan base most strongly identify with and thus it's a solid choice if you wanna reap a little scratch. The set here is, thankfully, second and third records pretty evenly, packed with gems, many of which are among my favorites, and sound quite energized back in this time when the band had some obvious enthusiasm. Granted, a live album from the years Martin van Drunen was fronting the band would have been the ideal for me to drain the wallet, but the infamous Patrick Mameli's vocals here are brute and ugly as on the recordings, and he doesn't really take a torch to the older cuts. Having seen them live Stateside on the tour for Testimony, I can recall that this was about the level at which they were performing, only here you get a lot more material since they weren't opening up for a larger act in a compact set, but given some actual time.

As for the live mix, it sounds pretty good in the mid-range, and conveys a lot of the grisliness of the songwriting, especially the Consuming Impulse material; but the riffing can occasionally come across as confusing when compared to the original studio versions. Guitars carve out the foremost point of production, while the bass is audible enough to make out through them, the vocals ride just outside and to the top at critical moments, and the drums also pop through. Leads sound just as spurious and infected as you'd want, and they play across all the albums with consistency. This is ESPECIALLY great to hear on "Chemo Therapy" which sticks out as a sore thumb as the sole representative of Mallevs Maleficarvm. And that's a bit of a downer, but it makes some sense that they mostly included Testimony of the Ancients due to its freshness, and Mameli's comfort growling and performing it. I might not hold that album in such high esteem as its predecessors, but I do enjoy it quite a lot and can't scoff at hearing "Presence of the Dead", "Twisted Truth" and so forth.

Admittedly, I'm not the hugest proponent for live albums. There are several in my collection that I have found timeless and alluring to keep around, but I'm always more apt to listen to the material in its studio context, and Presence of the Pest is no exception. It's a solid offering that wont' let you down if you pine for the Dutchmen at the pinnacle of their penetration into the 90s death metal market, before stuttering with the experimental (if still cool) Spheres. But as much as I love the band's early full-lengths, an admiration I will take to my own grave, I feel that I could very much live without this. And so I will.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/Pestilenceofficial?fref=ts

Brutus - Murwgebeukt (2016)

Murwgebeukt was not an album I was expecting to hear anytime soon, largely because Brutus had been so quiet for so long after the suicide of their former drummer. 13 years since Slachtbeest, which was a formidable entry to that sparse field of brutal yet old school death metal that seemed a little out of place when so many bands in the genre have polarized themselves into either the strictly nostalgic or technical/progressive camps. Yet, not only have the Dutchmen delivered another concussive volley of tracks in their native tongue, they've actually done a pretty good job of knocking out a solid sophomore which I'm finding myself enjoying roughly as much as its predecessor. Not there is much risk or nuance to what the band executes, but those looking for tight, pure blooded death metal there is plenty to appreciate.

Essentially the band plays with a similar level of forcefulness as Cannibal Corpse, Severe Torture or older Deicide. Lots of choppy stop/start blasts from recordings of the original drummer, making the disc sound like a fireworks factory is exploding, but often at the expense of the beats feeling as if they were purely mechanistic. The vocals are elongated gutturals accented with smaller, syncopated snarls, giving the record a truly nihilistic feel but not spitting out nearly as many syllables as you might hear over similar material by Corpsegrinder, etc. The bass tone here is a little difficult to discern, it hovers parallel to the punctuation of the rhythm guitar but it doesn't add a lot of swerve or atmosphere to the lower end of the mix. That said, for me Murwgebeukt is really all about the might of these guitars, which shift between evil sounding tremolo picked patterns to faster chugging and clinical mutes which definitely feel like a mesh of the first Pestilence record and some of Cannibal Corpse's excellent 90s material like Bloodthirst.

With 16 tracks, it might seem as if the album would be too swollen for its own good, but thankfully a number of these are just grimy guitar instrumentals or shorter bits that bridge the proper cuts, which are largely consistent even if a lot of the rhythm guitar patterns and beats feel redundant. But there is just something about how they've written the riffs that makes so many of them attractive. I'm highly attuned to the classic death metal from this country and I feel like they do an effective job of  taking elder statesmen Sinister and Pestilence and transforming those influences into something more visceral, intense and contemporary. There's nothing extremely memorable or unique to be had throughout the disc, and even the cover art looks like a hundred others, but it's simply an incessant beating through which a lot more of the guitars stick than don't, and if you're after high speed brutal death without the constant wanking and technicality you've come to expect from newer acts, then this warrants a recommendation. Time will tell if they follow this up directly, or we don't hear from Brutus again until 2029, but there is no question they deliver.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

http://www.brutushakken.nl/

Pestilence - The Dysentery Penance (2015)

It's kind of shocking that The Dysentery Pestilence hasn't happened until now. I mean I remember tracking down bootlegs of the Dutch veterans' demos long ago, so obsessed was I with their early LPs, but always wanted the material in some 'official' format. A desire which Mind Reflections, the Roadrunner compilation released in the 90s, was all too happy NOT to oblige. Now, in 2015, once it seems that Pestilence has gone defunct yet again (possibly for the best, but who knows), we are presented with both their original 1987 demos pre-Mallevs Maleficarvm, a couple of live tracks added on, and the whole shebang remixed by Dan Swano for Vic Records. Sounds like a plan...

Obviously, the tunes here are more oriented to the thrash metal which informed their Roadrunner Records debut Mallevs Maleficarvm, only with the first demo you've got Patrick Mameli doing a more straightforward, bruising vocal style over riffs that HEAVILY remind me of Slayer circa Hell Awaits, especially in tracks like "Delirical Life". They really hadn't gone that extra step of clinical development which cultivated those morgue room aesthetics on the first full-length, so we have a cruder riff-set that channels more of a West Coast US feel than even the more neighborly German thrash scene of that era. Volume has been brought up here, and it sounds almost like a basement gig of some crossover/thrash band in places, but you can hear some of the churning even in these early riffs which would influence later stuff, especially Consuming Impulse. That said, this doesn't really elevate beyond that garage speed/thrash level which hundreds of bands were creating in the mid 80s, and the songs leave no lasting impression even if they're appropriately abusive..."Throne of Death" is probably my favorite among them, a solid mid-paced thrasher with the riff that feel closest to me to Mallevs Maleficarvm.

For The Penance, they had acquired Martin van Drunen, and a more forceful, impactful riff set that, while not entirely in the ballpark of what they'd accomplish later, invokes a lot more anger and headbanging and probably took just as many cues from Exodus as Slayer. "Before the Penance" is a straight mosher, for example. Now, this is the earliest example of van Drunen's vocals I'd ever been exposed to, but you can already hear that unique, grotesque tone of his, only the vocals are a little thinner and not so brutally pitched. Some of the riffs in "Affectation" and perhaps a little in "Fight the Plague" were modified or borrowed wholesale to create tunes on the following full-length, and as you can already guess from my fanboyism of the first couple Pestilence records I would be much more inclined to visit this demo again than their earlier material. It's just more dynamic, evil and memorable, and while it won't stand out against fully formed bands releasing label efforts in '87, it's solid.

All in all, this was a decent acquisition for Vic records, and now that the Dutchmen are on hold (maybe for the last time), it's nice to be able to complete the cycle of their discography. The tunes aren't new to me, but Swano's mix elevates the material to a level just that you'd be rewarded with if you had previously fumbled around the underground for copies of the tapes. It's brought down by the average first demo, and the two live tracks (both tunes from The Penance) sound like shit, so I can't recommend it unless you're an enormous fan of Pestilence who must have everything. If you're entirely new to Pestilence, then any of the first three albums will serve you much better, or if you're not one of those anti-reunion slags, Resurrection Macabre probably won't let you down, it's a great amalgamation of their earlier sounds into a more punishing modern studio context.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

http://www.pestilence.nl/

Fungus - Predatory Harvest (2015)

The more death metal splits into its paradigms of old school nostalgia, cavernous atmosphere and tech brutality, the more I find myself drifting towards albums somewhere in the middle, which can cover a lot of the bases inherently and just commit to the actual process of songwriting. Fungus, a largely Portuguese act with one foreign member, tends to dwell within that range... You could make an argument that they veer slightly more towards the more technical side of things, but Predatory Harvest also features a widespread use of riffing constructions that remind me a lot of USDM, Deicide and Morbid Angel as they were emergent through the early 90s. There is nothing here on their full-length debut which you haven't already been exposed to hundreds if not thousands of times, but the level of competence and execution is such that it fits the bill when you're just in the mood for an explosion of turn-of-the-millennium death metal performed with a modicum of potency and proficiency.

A lot of stop/start blast-work here which supports tremolo picked patterns and evil bass lines that themselves occasionally remind me of note patterns from bands like Death back when they were fresh and creepy, but you wouldn't know it from the speed and volatility. Powder keg beats with the fuse about to be lit slathered with choppy clinical mute picking sequences redolent of anything from modern Pestilence to Cannibal Corpse. Unfortunately, a number of these often feel familiar to one another, and I was often relying on the slower or mid-paced riffs in between them to differentiate tracks. The vocalist has a straightforward, nihilistic guttural to which he applies some sustain, but it doesn't necessarily stand out in a crowd of so many others in the field. I do feel, though, that there is one department here where the band excelled beyond others, and that's just how much excitement the leads provide, soaring in like wailing death metal pteranodons and making everything else much more kinetic and memorable simply by association. They're not using anything out of the ordinary in terms of technique, but they just attribute a well roundedness to the material which would be partly nullified without them.

Lyrically Fungus deals a lot with technophobia, or just how much computers and nanotechnology will inevitably warp and twist mankind as you'll read a lot in science fiction/cyberpunk horror stories, and they often get down to the technical details of the process, which is not uncommon in death metal but also not the most frequent topic I associate with it. The studio production isn't overly polished or processed, but rather clean and straightforward enough to discern every note, grunt, bass line and individual drum. I feel the main limitation here is just that there a lot of bands and records in this niche, but if you're in the mood for stuff like Prostitute Disfigurement, Gorgasm, Suffocation, Decrepit Birth and Mortal Decay, and you'd rather have with a different logo and some new faces, then Predatory Harvest is not a bad way to satisfy that craving. Solidly executed tech death precision, with no aversion to throwing down on a simpler groove from an older era when appropriate.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.facebook.com/BRUTALFUNGUS

Dicated - The Deceived (2014)

Always good to see Dutch death metal thriving, it's long been a scene I've kept my eyes on, from the early masters (Pestilence, Sinister, etc) through the considerable continuity of the 90s and beyond. Part of that is because it's in me blood, but really, it just seems like such a wonderful, balanced nation to hide such a grotesque underbelly beneath it. Perhaps the long-term effects of windmill-studded landscapes and delicious stroopwafels are more depressing and pathological than I would have predicted. Yeah, I'm being a stereotypical prick, but unfortunately the music on this Dictated sophomore record is every bit as cliche, not to the degree that they come off as some bumbling, incompetent fools, far from it...it's yet another case where absolutely no originality and very little memorable songwriting add up to a real mundane listen, strange considering they got snapped up by the fairly high profile Metal Blade Records...

It's not just the music, either. From the surface in...the bland cover artwork which looks like it's going to be a groove metal or metalcore disc, the non-logo logo which would have been better left in the trash for the cheap cost of hiring an artist (I seem to remember seeing one somewhere, it was better than this). Dictated have a sound heavily derived from the British scene, in particular Bolt Thrower, both in the slower grooves, warlike melodies and basically just how these folks structure their chord progressions. More War Master and The IVth Crusade than Realm of Chaos, but unable to conjure that epic, grim hostility of their forebears. You could also say there was a little Benediction here...not the old stuff, but the charmless mid-period where the band sort of fell behind the rest of the veterans in effectiveness. Otherwise, there might be a little bit of a bland Asphyx/Sinister imprint on the riffing and composition, but it all just feels do dry and lacking in atmosphere. Essentially Dictated feel like another 'catch up' band, striving just to attain a sound that was already passe many years ago, rather than forging into new terrain, which death metal could really use right about now, since so many of the new generation of bands are just straight derivatives of this scene or that, this guitar tone or that particular band.

Take a group like Coldworker, and then drain away all the excitement and grinding explosiveness, leaving behind their more mediocre riff selections, and I feel like you'd end up with The Deceived. Sonja Schuringa and Jessica Otten (also in Temple, who I dig more than this), are perfectly adequate guitarists, shifting between tremolo picked madness, churning chords and the corrosive melodies I mentioned above, but I just don't feel like a lot of personality exudes from their choices of riff. All patterns are wholly paraphrased from the thousands that predate them, and the album lacks the punch of wild, memorable leads or inescapable atmospheric phrasing. Henri Sattler and Michiel van der Plicht of God Dethroned take on the role of rhythm section here, and are mechanically flawless, but that doesn't really enhance the rest of the record to a noticeable degree. The vocals are a pretty stock array of broad growls and punctual barks which fall somewhere between Barney of Napalm Death and Angela ex-Arch Enemy, but once again they come across as merely functional, without any sense of sadism, torment, or character that all the best death metal frontpersons convey; nor are they specifically gargled or amusing on a humorous level.

I don't want to hate on this record too much, because it's worst crime is really just the fact that if we were drafting some sort of 'fantasy league' of death metal albums this year, The Deceived would be one of the last picks on the bench, if chosen at all. Not terrible by any means; it's just really unimaginative...inoffensive and indistinguishable from so much else, which might be enough for some listeners, but if you've got decades invested as a fan of the medium, its rather expendable, and when one takes into account how bloated the scene is to begin with, it just doesn't have that staying power...in fact, it doesn't really have much starting power. I haven't heard the self-released debut, so I can't compare this to that, but with luck they'll transform the apparent fluidity and professionalism of this effort (its strengths) into something more interesting and unique in the future. For now, I have to pass on recommending this.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

http://www.metalblade.com/dictated/