For a band that’s been around for over a decade, Lay Down Rotten appear to have passed me by. But I’m glad to have had this album fall into my lap, as it were. I enjoyed the heaviness but more importantly the intricate melodies that every song manages to carry no matter how fast or heavy it becomes.
“Deathchain” opens proceedings in a rather no holds barred fashion with Jost Kleinert setting a vocal tone of low drawn out growls, but perfectly understandable at the same time.
Uwe Kilian’s bass fills in all the spaces left by the drums and guitars to give a wall of sound on “A Darker Shade of Hatred” where the melodies flow and intertwine and emerge again under another riff.
“Nightfall” is a brief intro to the title track “Mask of Malice” has a steady thump of the Timo Claas’ kick drums which barely slows down when the guitars breakdown to a mellow groove.
“…And Out Come the Wolves” commences with slow guitars which build gradually ’til the equally slow vocal roars kick in. The Nils Förster and Daniel Seifert trade leads and melodies on their guitars, keeping in time with the drums.
Jost’s opening roar on “Swallow the Bitterness” sounds more like he’s vomiting it up to be fair, while the guitars and drums play a rather groove laden tune, it’s still crushingly heavy with a rather piercing lead.
LDR appear to have made a music video for “Hades Resurrected”, which I’d really like to watch when it’s released, as aurally this song has a great feel to it and a nice horror movie edge to the chants it opens with.
A simple driving drum beat is used on “The Devil Grins” and while it speeds up slightly and then slows down again, it doesn’t fluctuate much, giving it a rather no nonsense sensibility.
“La Serpenta Canta” opens with a heady lead which may lull you into thinking the song’s going to be slow and melodic. It’s anything but. It powers down the churning guitars and while there’s a slowish break during the leads, the song quickly blasts back with full force as soon as they end.
The final track on the album, “The Loss”, gallops along at a blistering pace and ends the album leaving you in no doubt that you’d been aurally assaulted and liked it.
(7/10 Marco Gaminara)
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