Deathtober part 2

 Here's some more reviews, don't forget to follow the playlist at Deathtober 2020

Glacial Tomb - self-titled 2018

A relatively new band from Colorado with a cool name and finally, not a throwback band - this list was getting thick with them. That being said, I’m not sure how to categorize these guys they have elements of grind, death, and straight thrash in their music. It’s heavy and punishing stuff and made all the more effective with doubled up vocals. Slow with occasional bouts of speed GT prefer to bludgeon you over the head rather than stab you repeatedly. The lyrics suggest this is a band with a higher agenda - politically charged with aspirations to eventually evolve beyond the death metal category, but who’s to say.

Ultimately, I’m not sure what to make of Glacial Tomb. I enjoy the slow punishing parts and the faster parts are effective, but the production flirts with deathcore enough to sour me a tad. I don’t know... jury is still out.

Call it: A heavy slab of modern metal that’s hard to categorize.

Deicide - Overtures of Blasphemy 2018

Glenn and Steve have been at it since 89. That’s crazy. This is their 12th full length and really, since they ditched the Hoffman brothers, they’ve been simply consistent and good. Glenn’s higher-pitched “witch” voice is gone on this one, and I do miss it, but he is still a master of the interesting vocal rhythm. Just check out the chant worthy “Seal the Tomb Below” or the gallop-heavy “All that is Evil.”

Deicide have a Slayer-like consistency. They understand their winning formula: 3 or 4 money riffs, get in and out in under 4 minutes. OOB is nothing new for Deicide, but it is an excellent death metal record.

Call in: Consistently catchy Florida death metal from one of the genre’s inventors.

Suffocation - ...of the Dark Light 2017

Mullen and Hobbs are on the personnel list, so you know this’ll be worth your time. Since their self-titled revival in 2006, Suffocation has been pumping out a slab of brutal DM every few years to remind the kids who invented this stuff. OTDL is not their most chaotic offering, and sometimes it’s downright melodic, but in that Suffo kind of way. Mullen sounds beastly as ever and the music is just as punishing as it was 25 years ago. Through-composed tunes, mostly atonal riffs, bursts of melody, blazing solos, brutal start and stop blasts... Suffocation fans know what to expect.

Suffocation really doesn’t put out a bad album they make you wait a few years, so it’s quality over quantity. I would put anything they’ve generated post 2000 against Their New York peers, Cannibal Corpse, post 2000 output any day - Suffo wins. No they don’t deviate from their formula, but none of their fans really want them too. This is good stuff.

Call it: Another impressive slab of brutal death metal from the guys who created the damn genre.

Casket Huffer - Filth Ouroboros 2019

A sophomore album from a Wyoming group with an amusing name. This is blast-heavy stuff with a blackened-death flavor - like mid-era Behemoth maybe. Ghastly vocals and 32nd note blast beats make this a very black metal sounding record to me, Blackened death metal? Always been a weird combo for me.

Genre speculation aside, this is pretty evil sounding stuff - real muddy mix which maybe hurts them a tad - the guitars are doing a lot but I can’t really decipher much of it. It’s not until towards the end of The Antichrist Vessel that we get a proper groove going. Like I’ve mentioned- if you blast for most of a song, it kind of weakens the point of it. In DM mind you, in black metal it serves a different purpose.

“Caustic Winds” is a nice track. Slows down to a crawl and then blasts away. The variation serves these guys well. Good growls, ferocious drums. When they groove a bit, it’s pretty kick ass. The talent is definitely there, just not the particular flavor of DM I go for usually. As a sophomore effort, it’s damn impressive. That last track is awesome.

Call it: A well-crafted blackened death metal record with somewhat muddy production and fantastic vocals.

Ossuarium - Living Tomb 2019

Debut album from these Portland, Oregon death metalers, man it’s cool seeing these bands pop up in the west. They sling that east coast OSDM in the style of Immolation. Funny how so many of these revival bands pick that 90’s New York sound... I guess it’s easier to dial in than the Florida stuff. I’m not complaining though, it’s great to hear new energy being breathed into this style. Ossuarium do just that. They actually end up sounding pretty original with some Swedish elements, atmosphere, and melody. Really good breakdowns and slow-as-hell doom passages interspersed with blasts and midtempo grooves. Vocals are nice and low and somewhat buried which fits the mix nicely, guitar tone is also on point.

Ossuarium write a good song. Their compositional skills set them above a fair amount of their peers in that regard. Living Tomb is a solid debut with catchy riffs, varied tempos, and good production. These guys’ next one is definitely gonna be highly anticipated.

Call it: A fantastic debut OSDM album with varied influences and great song writing.

Cannibal Corpse - Red Before Black 2017

First off - all 5 members of CC have been in the band for at least 20 years. Alex (bass) and Paul (drums) have been rocking it since Eaten Back to Life was a demo. I’ve always been a Barnes-era guy. Not that I’m against Fisher (though I don’t think he varies his cadence enough), I just think Owen and Rusay wrote better songs. Rusay’s departure after Tomb of the Mutilated Definitely affected the writing and then Owen leaving after Wretched Spawn, well... I’m just not sure they were ever the same after that.

Red Before Black is album number 14, and the 10th one with Fisher at lead throat (and with his neck now officially thicker than his head). I don’t think their production has changed a bit in the last 10 years or so. I get that if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but I kind of like how Morbid Angel do it - no 2 albums sound alike. CC put out record after record of tightly produced, perfectly mixed and eq’d DM. I imagine their mixing board just remains setup and untouched.

RBB sees the band going through the motions, it’s perfectly executed and heavy stuff - grooves, pogos, blasts... atonal riffs aplenty, not a whole lot of hooks to speak of, but some melody creeps in here and there. “Firestorm Vengeance” starts with such promise and then just does what every other one of their songs ends up doing... the end of “In the Midst it Ruin” was pretty cool. I just can’t get excited about anything CC does anymore, and I can’t explain it. I think Gore Obsessed was the last album I considered great, everything after that just feels uninspired and by-the-numbers.

Call it: Another CC album that sounds almost identical to the last one.

Immolation - Atonement 2017

Album number 10 from one of the most influential New York DM bands out there. Dolan and Vigna have been there since 88 and they are still at it. Immolation are meat and potatoes death metal - you can sink your teeth into it. they make it sound easy in a style that is instantly recognizable as them. I guess, to contrast with fellow New Yorkers, Cannibal Corpse, Immolation still know how to write a hook. Just listen to that development at the end of “Destructive Currents” one riff suddenly becomes something else and then a second guitar adds a grim melody on top. It’s called composition and these guys are masters.

That title track is something special - really cool opening hook with a jarring drumbeat that transitions to a blast and eventually slows to a lurch. They change it up and swerve on a dime through the whole album. They are in top form here. The only thing average about Immolation is Dolan’s voice which gets the job done, but nothing more. It’s really me trying to find a gripe though, this record slays.

Call it: Old School New Yorkers in top form showing why so many bands try to imitate them.

Bloodbath - The Arrow of Satan is Drawn 2018

These guys might be the first true “throwback” death metal band, starting as a super group of Swedes in 2000 - with the interest of paying homage to their early 90’s heroes. 5 albums later they are essentially Katatonia with Nick Holmes from Paradise Lost reminding us he used to growl... quite well.

They’re still essentially a love letter to the Swedish DM of the old days, but they’ve managed to throw enough modern elements in it to make it sound fresh and relevant. They’re still rocking that Sunlight studio sound (at least that Boss distortion pedal guitar tone anyway) and most of the tunes are midtempo stompers - pretty fun stuff. “Morbid Antichrist” is a highlight - nice stops and a punk-fueled main riff and an incredible vocal performance from Nick.

Call it: OSDM of the Swedish variety done with flair and enthusiasm.

Abysmal Dawn - Phylogenesis 2020

It’s been six long years since we last heard from these Californians. They play a modern DM and can hang with the most extreme acts out there - like Nile, Hate Eternal. Super triggered drums and turbo speeds make for a very frantic almost grindcore sound at times. Other times, they slow it down and thicken things up with a good groove. I dig those vocals, particularly when they double up. Choppy guitars that surprise you with soaring leads, bonafide shredders here - very intense stuff but I find myself digging it a lot more than I usually do with this ultra produced stuff.

“Coerced Evolution” slows it down to a moderate plod and sounds almost commercial. Whereas “True to the Blind” sails by at broken beats and fragments. This is tech death I suppose, but not so much as to be off putting to folks who like their stuff more straightforward. As modern DM goes, it pretty much nails it with a nice balance of brutality, melody, speed, and groove. It's long, but never seems so - there is lots of great metal to enjoy here.

Call it: a modern, well-produced slab of flashy death metal that has a pretty broad appeal.

Spectral Voice - Eroded Corridors of Unbeing 2017

Death / Doom purveyors from Colorado - I think this is their only full length so far. Nice sludgy stuff with that deep deep growl and reverb-crazy mix slowing things to like 60 bpm, able to breath within the pauses. Slow and punishing like the doom moments of the mighty Autopsy or Incantation.

There apparently is a whole sub genre of this stuff, but those two bands are my best reference. SV are pretty damn entertaining. They can crawl along for 4-5 minutes and then suddenly drop into a blast beat. I like it - totally new for me. This is some heavy shit. Occasional blood-curdling screeches break up the growls and it all gives you that nice torture chamber vibe. I will certainly have to delve deeper into this stuff. Apparently a bunch of Finnish bands play this type of doom/death thing. I bet there are some good ones over there.

Call it: Doom metal in death metal clothing with occasional bursts of speed and a few surprises along the way.

Pyrrhon - Abscess Time 2020

I’m not sure when this kind of music started being called tech death, because it sounds like grindcore to me. Noisy, screamy, angry, with a bunch of breakdowns... it’s definitely some kind of “core.” I don’t hate it, I’m just perplexed how it made Kerrang’s must hear death metal band list.

There’s only one dude listed as vocals so, I’m impressed he can go guttural, screechy, pig squeals, and full on screams. Very diverse guy if it is indeed just him. The music runs all over the place, but it is similar to the stuff you’d hear from Today is the Day, or Everytime I Die - you know... noise-metal. It’s diverse and a varied listen, but mostly noisy and angry. The list of similar artists on Metal Archives demonstrates no one has any clue how to categorize these guys.

Call it: whatever you want apparently, it’s noisy, angry, and plenty interesting- give it a shot.

Portal - Ion 2018

True Metal is supposed to challenge the listener in my mind. The reward is discovering things buried deep beneath the surface through repeated listens. Well if that’s the metaphor we're using, then imagine Portal’s surface is about 100 yards of solid steel. Abstract, experimental... these words don’t do them justice. YouTube them. Right now. These Australians are full on crazy. What they do can be called death metal - the vocals are there, as is the drumming, but you’ll be hard pressed to follow them on your first few times through. Portal are a total enigma and that’s their appeal and intrigue.

Those guys giving them 100% on Metal Archives claiming they understand the absolute genius and you never will, are fucking poseurs. This shit is strictly unfathomable and we like it that way. You’re not gonna play this to clean your house to, or to unwind at the end of a tough day. You could throw this on at the end of the night when you want your company to go home. It’ll do the trick.

Call it: Atmospheric mind blasting not to be taken lightly or with hallucinogens (I imagine... that just sounds like a bad idea)