V/A Deathmetal.be sampler
Face Your Underground (volume 5) ()
Wydane przez RottenToTheCoreRok wydania Kraj Napisał Wouter
Introduction:
DeathMetal.be exploded into the international scene in 2002, providing up-to-date scene news, non-profit services to help out beginning Belgian acts in spreading their name, a forum, a promotion medium via their compilation effort and a truckload of related gigs and festivals. As if an annual tradition the lads of DeathMetal.be already provide us with the fifth installment of their flagship trademark series. On their fifth compilation DeathMetal.be do little to spice up their series and this results in a sufficient if not workman like effort.
Review:
Starting off with three mainstays of the series in Aborted, In-Quest and Suhrim the compilation's selling points all are played out in the first fifteen minutes. Only mechanical death metallers In-Quest presents an exclusive track for this compilation and Prejudice are the first band to debut truly new material. This new Prejudice track can easily compete with the likes of Aeon, Spawn of Possession or Visceral Bleeding. Suhrim's 'Bonesaw' (not a Six Feet Under cover, surprisingly) is a chugging groove fest from the Hertz, Poland recorded "Happy Hour" album. Deathcore/post-metal unit Welkin add 'Loki' from their flawed Shiver Records debut "The Origin". A more death metal oriented take on the genre popularized by the likes of High On Fire and Mastodon. An okay foray into the genre but this isn't going to lift them out of the underground. Unleash the Fury seems hellbent on aping the likes of Born From Pain and Hatebreed with its double bass pounding, groove-laden, gang shouted metallic hardcore. Shifting again to deathcore Fatal Recoil's 'Malicious' is far more death metal oriented and the Swedish riffing is a nice if not mundane touch. The singer reminds me of Max Cavalera every once in a while. Murder Intention's 'Corpse Explosion' is - as the songtitle would suggest - typical guttural US death metal one would expect of a label as United Guttural or Unmatched Brutality. A better mix would be beneficial for this band, as only the vocals and guitars can be heard - the rest is an undecipherable mess, literally. Brodequin and Waco Jesus do this genre right, this band doesn't. Guttural is indeed guttural in its tired and tiring US death metal, the vocalist and drummer are about the only redeeming factors in this band. Fans of the American and Mexican Disgorge will like his work. Pulverize contribute 'Dominance' to this compilation, which is messily recorded and sloppily performed stale death metal that will do little to further their domination. 'Involution Process' by the French speaking Pestifer is technical bass-heavy death metal of the later Death, Atheist and Pestilence variety, including multiple tempo changes and extended lead sections. 'Lazy Fairytale' by Icarian sounds like Internal Bleeding or to a lesser degree Broken Hope with disjointed metalcore sensibilities. Apocryph revive the classic Swedish death metal sound, with bands like The Absence being on bigger labels its no surprise why they are present here. Fans of The Crown, (early) Arch Enemy and (later) At the Gates will like this. '6 Days to Live' by Mystica reminds me a lot of the old death/black metal bands on the No Fashion Records label in the early '90s albeit in a more forward thrashing manner. Avoid sound like their brethren in Apocryph, be it that they are not quite as complex in the instrumental department. Chalice reminds me a lot of legendary Swedish death/thrashers Merciless in its productional rawness and vocal delivery. Reality is another poorly recorded old school death metal band. 'Human Execution' is as cliché and instantly forgettable as its songtitle implies. Self Inflicted brings a strange mix between rock n roll, thrash metal and death metal vocals. Predatoria reminds me a bit of "Aggressive Measures" and "Creative Killings" era Sinister, although they had better production and stonger compositional/technical skills at their disposal. Fungus Inc. presents no-frills groove death metal, inspired by the likes of Six Feet Under, Autopsy and Bolt Thrower. This track features acclaimed Dutch scene icon Martin van Drunen (Pestilence, Asphyx) on guest vocals. Definitely a nice closer to this compilation that does about much right as it does wrong.
General conclusion:
Another worthy addition to this strong series of compilations. The tracklist could have been ordered a little better, as the compilation's primary strengths are played out too early on. Going from veteran bands, deathcore/post-metal, USDM, technical/melodic to metalcore and finally old school thrash, in that specific order - the listener can virtually set the clock and turn the volume knob up when what sparks his/hers interest most occurs. Earlier compilations out of this series had much better structured setlists that kept the pace high, yet mixed up the genres nicely without losing the listener in the process.
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