There seem to be an awful lot of retrogressive death metal bands around these days. It seems everyone is hankering for the days when death metal was scary, new, dark and exciting. Not every band hits the mark, in fact the majority sound like tired, hackneyed, uninspiring rehashes of the same of old stuff, repeated over and over again. Some bands, however, really hit the spot – the excellently named Zombiefication are such a band.
Zombiefication are actually from Mexico, but in order to appreciate this album fully, you need to shift your attention a few thousand miles north and east. The band’s second full length album,`At The Gates of Eternal’ evokes the spirit of ancient Swedish death metal. I am not talking about the quasi-In Flames melodic wave of saccharine-coated `death metal’ that came out of Gothernburg and then everywhere else in the world. I refer instead, to the first wave; the dark, dank, grim death metal with that unique, obscure and distinctive sound that came crawling out of the deep pits of Sweden at the very end of the 80’s and the early 90’s. Think Dismember, Grave, Necrophobic et el… Zombiefication have captured that sound perfectly. Yes, I admit that this has sound has been reproduced many, many times before. Zero out of ten to these Mexican maniacs for originality.
What makes this album stand head and shoulders above the others though is its sheer jaw-dropping quality. It has the PERFECT old Swedish death metal sound, in absolutely every way. The guitars are skull-crushingly heavy, like waves of slimy, dark malevolence crashing over your head again and again. They have that totally dark, obscure sound which reminds me of early Grave albums. The entire production captures that evil feeling exactly.
It is not just the sound and production that makes this album such a great imitation Swedish death metal album however; these guys really know how to write songs. Balancing crushing power, Slayer/Discharge style beats, a tinge of morbid melody, fantastic, memorable riffs and great, dramatic dynamics just about makes this a perfect album for those who love this style of death metal.
For me, as a huge fan of bands like Necrophobic, this album is a total pleasure to listen to from start to finish; there is a very slight tinge of black metal which reminds me in particular of that band’s first album. Yes, it is somewhat one dimensional, like a lot of those early death metal albums, but it evokes those feelings that albums like `The Nocturnal Silence’ and `You’ll Never See…(Heaven)’ did at the time. The song writing is great, never dull, and always dark, dramatic and crushingly heavy. Never mind that the idea behind Zombiefication’s sound has been done a thousand times before – here it is done extremely well, and with conviction. Somewhere in Central Mexico (Queretaro to be exact), a cold, dark Swedish storm is brewing…
(8.5/10 Jon Butlin)
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