Vomitory's new album is a real treat for death metal fans.
Another week, and another death metal album finds its way onto my somewhat messy desk, edgy black and red cover nestled between empty teacups and ancient bus tickets. I swear I listen to more of this genre than any other, although considering the innovation presented by the average death metal troupe, one band seems fairly representative of 90% of 'em.
Vomitory, at least, have something more than macho posturing and tincan-of-grizzlies soundscapes going for them, with an album that easily stands out from the death metal crowd. 'Terrorize, Brutalize, Sodomize' manages to combine uncompromising extreme metal with screaming melodies, creating a catchy album thats nonetheless got plenty of depth.
The album opens with rather standard death metal fare - a wall of sound hitting the listener hard, and not much else. But it soon moves beyond basic brutality into an impressive demonstration of Gustafsson and Gustafsson's guitar skills, as well as of the overall quality of the songwriting on this album. From there it continues to pick up, with the anthemic title track oozing single potential from every vicious note, to 'March to Oblivion', whichfeatures a nice little bass part and a guitar riff that's sure to stick in your head, sounding akin to sleazy hard rock beefed up immesurably with blast beats and growls.
Vomitory have been around a long time - since long before this reviewer even heard her first blast beat - and are clearly old hands at the death metal game. They don't seem to be producing anything stunningly innovative with their newest offering, but there are plenty of other groups to satisfy any fancy-pants avant-garde death metal cravings you might have. Vomitory are doing the same old thing I'm by now rather sick of, but they're doing it so well that I can't help but enjoy their album. This is clearly a band at the top of their game.
This is certainly an album that you should pick up if you're keen on the death metal genre, and chances are the genre's most hardcore fans already have. But it's also an excellent example of the genre at it's best, and one that, especially with it's melding of melody and heaviness, represents a nice introduction to the genre for curious newcomers. It's a little short, at only ten tracks (all of which are under five minutes in length, aside from closer 'Cremation Ceremony'), but that's often a drawback of the genre, and none of the material here really qualifies as filler, so you're getting 40minutes of high-quality DM bang for your buck, from one of the shining lights of the genre, rather than another mess of growls and guitars to collect dust on your shelf. Well worth checking out.