Death Metal

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    Legacy of Brutality – Path of Forgotten Souls (2011)

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    Delivering 39 minutes of neck snapping Death Metal, today we have Legacy of Brutality and their debut full-length “Path of Forgotten Souls” out on Chief Records. Through the nine tracks presented in the release, we have chugging guitars, bestial drumming and nice hooks, making it one of the most straight forward and well crafted DM releases of 2011.

    While everybody and their mother is out there playing your run of the mill cookie monster DM, Legacy of Brutality focuses on creating catchy tracks with meaty hooks and demonic vocals. The band excels in adding small touches of flair into their sound by relying on very technical guitar and bass guitar work and drumming, but never falling into the Obscura category for Technical DM.

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    Austrian Death Machine – Jingle All the Way (2011)

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    With a hefty dose of pounding guitars and Arnold Schwarzenegger ridicule, today we have Austrian Death Machine and their latest single “Jingle All the Way”. Featuring three songs of hilarious and very well crafted Metal, As I Lay Dying’s Tim Lambesis is ready for another round of wackiness.

    Opening with “I’m not a Pervert”, the ‘band’ delivers high-octane guitar riffing with crushing vocals and some Arnold-like spoken sections. This song is very well crafted and pretty brutal indeed, it just makes it even better with the funny lyrics. Next on the agenda, the pounding “It’s Turbo time” delivers more devastating guitar riffs and a nice intensity.

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    Graveworm – Fragments of Death (2011)

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    Continuing on the right path after their very impressive release “Diabolical Figures”, today we have Graveworm and their latest opus “Fragments of Death”. Most of the Gothic Metal pleasantries away, “Fragments of Death” delivers 11 punishing tracks of very well balanced Death/Black Metal with a high melodic content, but always aggressive enough to make your speakers explode.

    Opening with the high intensity “Insomnia”, the band shows fierce Death Metal influences with a nice Melodic edge in terms of riffing and some atmospheric keyboards. Stefan’s vocals are as good as always and his mixture between growls and shrieks is just excellent. The melodic/brutal assault continues with the ‘slower’ “Only Death in our Wake”, but quickly picks up with some excellent chorus section on “Absence of Faith”. In this track, the melody makes a huge different in making a repetitive song very catchy and powerful. Some sections in this track even feel a bit like their sound back on “As the Angels Reach the Beauty” but will less flair.

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    Tyrael – Der Wald ist mein Zuhause (2010)

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    Featuring a very unique blend of Black/Death and Grindcore with Melodic passages, today we have Tyrael and their latest release “Der Wald ist mein Zuhause”. With claims by the band of calling their sound “Green Metal”, we found it very interesting that they actually do sound different than the tons of submissions we get every day.

    Blowing up in your face with the opening track “To Isengard”, the band quickly gets into very melodic guitar work, crafted to perfection. The band’s tempo changes and hellish vocal combinations deliver enough brutality to nicely contrast the melodic nature of the track. “Throne of God” moves a bit into Black Metal territory with brutal drumming, but it also has very effective melodic mid-tempo sections that nicely pace the songs.

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    Thulcandra – Under a Frozen Sun (2011)

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    Dissection worshipers Thulcandra return with an even more impressive sophomore effort titled “Under a Frozen Sun”. In this release the band takes their amazing Dissection-influenced Death/Black Metal to new heights with seven crushing tracks and one cover song. If you thought that “Fallen Angel’s Dominion” was an excellent release, brace yourself since this new album will rip you a new one.

    Opening with “In Blood and Fire”, the band will send shivers through your spine with the acoustic opening guitars. But once the powerful riffing starts, you will be hooked on this album like if it was your drug of choice. Steffen Kummerer does a great job in capturing that peculiar guitar sound from the early Dissection material and makes it his own with Thulcandra’s band of hectic and guitar driven Black/Death Metal.

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    Untimely Demise – City of Steel (2011)

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    All the way from the Nordic lands of Canada, today we have Untimely Demise’s debut full-length release “City of Steel. While the band plays the traditional Thrash/Death Metal game, there are a few elements here and there to make this release standout from the countless dull bands we get every week.

    Having some early Children of Bodom (vocals and some guitar work) edge makes “City of Steel” a nice 32 minute release that will not go easily forgotten. In the opening “Virtue In Death” track, we have the traditional Thrash/Death Metal sound back in the day, but the guitar work is what makes this song (and album) more entertaining and different.

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    Slaughtery - Path-(t)o-Logic (2011)

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    Featuring 36 minutes of very brutal Death Metal with some technical elements, today we have Slaughtery’s first full-length release “Path-(t)o-Logic”. In this album we have tons of chugging riffs, brilliant technical sections and an overall crushing feeling that will leave your ears bleeding (in a good way) after just one spin of this release.

    Opening in a very traditional fashion with “Nine Minutes”, the band shows their strengths in crafting punishing riffs, a pounding bass guitar line and some hellish vocals. The intricate guitar sections are what immediately sets this band apart from your typical cookie-cutter bands and will surely get Salughtery noticed in the scene. “Chimerism” gives a little of the old-school Death sound but with actually brutal vocals, a feat that only a few bands have come close to doing in the past.

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    Mr. Death – Descending Through Ashes (2011)

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    One year after the release of their highly entertaining EP “Death Suits You”, old-school Death Metal is back with another Mr. Death release. With a very traditional Swedish old-school DM sound, this group of Swedes deliver 10 songs of nostalgic sounding music that should appeal to all fans of older Entombed, Grave, Dismember, and similar bands.

    With a dirty and gritty sound, Mr. Death rolls through the songs in this release featuring a hefty amount of catchy riffs and headbanging moments. Since the opener “To Armageddon”, we can hear the raw distorted guitars nicely fit with the organic-sounding drumming. Most songs of this release are pretty straightforward and effortlessly re-capture the guitar/vocal sound of old-school bands with a twist of modern production values.

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    Fleshgod Apocalypse – Agony (2011)

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    Can you imagine how Dimmu Borgir and Xerath sound on crack? Well Fleshgod Apocalypse is the answer to that question. As one of the most intense releases we have heard in 2011, “Agony” is by far a very though cookie to digest since there is just too much shit going on at the same time, and it’s awesome.

    The first impression the listener will get from the album is that this is just another overly exaggerated orchestral approach to extreme music. “The Hypocrisy” delivers ridiculous orchestrations (although very simple ones) on top of a brutal Death Metal foundation, something that might seem rather disconnected at first. The female sounding vocals (might be a dude) seem ripped off straight from the last Dimmu Borgir album and a bit of the darker atmosphere also sound very familiar.  

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    Lock Up – Necropolis Transparent (2011)

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    After almost 10 years since their last album, Lock Up bounces back from the death of Jesse Pintado, and delivers 16 crushing blows of Death Metal. Featuring Anton Reisenegger on guitars and Tomas Lindberg on vocals, Shane Embury and Nick Barker have managed to put together an even stronger line-up than before, and you can clearly hear this in “Necropolis Transparent”.

    Since the relentless opener “Brethren of the Pentagram”, the punishing drumming is the first highlight to be noted. Then as you keep going through tracks like “Accelerated Mutation”, “Necropolis Transparent”, “Anvil of Flesh” and “Unseen Enemy”, the powerful riffing of Reisenegger creates very brutal and engaging tracks. Bordering in almost Black Metal riffing, some songs are something you don’t quite hear everyday. The brutality is there musically and they just need Linberg’s screams, and Embury’s pounding bass guitar line to push the songs into full-on headbanging anthems.

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