“Age is not and will not ever be a handicap”. From this old crock to the young men of Apothesary, it’s good to hear it. Decapitated were doing it at the age of 14. These old men from the US, aged between 17 and 19, have just released this five track EP, following three demos, a full length album and another EP.
Well, on the evidence of this, not only have Apothesary got plenty to say, they’re forceful in saying it. I was immediately blown back by the strength of the brutality. The sound quality is excellent and helps with the absorption of all the death metal blasts and explosions you could ever wish for. “Hamartia”, which opens up this work, is a good song too. It’s not just about the assault. There’s a lot of technical subtlety at the end, which goes nicely with hitherto unmitigated warfare. A deep and throaty bass line, slamming drums and ferocious growls hit us some more on the title track, as if the aim of the game is to rip our head to shreds. “Cosmophage” develops – yes, develops – into controlled aggression before transforming an orgy of thunder, chaos and violence. Cool. The openings are becoming more subtle. Drums trigger impressively as “Parting at Morning” takes a melodically-inclined blackened death face. The meandering vocals and vocal line add an element of humanity to the aggressive energy. There’s then a surprisingly quiet and sophisticated ending. It works well in the context of this track. This tells me too that Apothesary have strings to their bow which they can develop for the future. Finally there is a cover of At The Gates “Blinded by Fear”. Some don’t like the idea of covers. Personally, I like them as they often display a band’s creativity and skill as they re-work a classic song. It helps that the song being covered is appropriate to the rest of the album, or EP in this case. I can think of a number of disasters in this respect which have unbalanced albums, but there’s no fear here as “Blinded by Fear” is right up Apthesaty’s street. At least they make it so with the persistent drum, deep riff, and attacking death metal which seems to be their trademark style. Nice one.
I’ve probably heard this before somewhere because brutal death metal is brutal death metal, but let’s look at this at face value. “They All Carry Ghosts” is fresh, non-stop aggressive, melodically-inclined and will knock you back if you decide to listen to it. I recommend that you do.
(8/10 Andrew Doherty)
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