Right, hands up who’s heard of Demonbreed? No you haven’t, stop lying. This is soon to change as these Germans have delivered a superb mouldering, maggot-ridden slab of old school death metal meat with this, their debut album. It’s a fucking belter.
Featuring former members of Lay Down Rotten (who knocked it on the head last year) and Milking The Goatmachine, the Berliners certainly have a decent musical pedigree and for me personally, Demonbreed kick both of the aforementioned bands into the weeds.
Following on from a very limited edition 7” split last month with Polish DM band The Dead Goats, Demonbreed concoct a delicious blend of old school Swedish style groove, aggressive vocals and modern sounding song writing which is infectious and rewarding.
Eerie instrumental opener ‘Where Gods Come To Die’ sounds like it should be on a King Diamond album and I must admit, I thought ‘Oh this is gonna be wanky’ but NO! ‘Vultures In The Blood Red Sky’ grabs you by the scruff of the neck and boots you round the house as if you were a staffie puppy that had shit in your arsehole owners slippers. No messing whatsoever and this sets the tone for the rest of the album. ‘A Thousand Suns Will Rise’ is next and after the crushingly heavy opening riff its business as usual with vocalist Jost growling about armageddon in more of a mid paced number.
‘Revenge In The Afterlife’ has a D-Beat feel and some cracking drumming by Timo Class.
‘Empty Grave’ is a thorough Dismember style blast and every one of the eleven tracks drips with gnarly HM-2 riffing and Entombedy groove.
‘Blood Coloured’ is a cover of an old Edge Of Sanity (the 90’s Swedish DM band featuring Dan Swano) track and It’s a tasty little tribute and shows that Demonbreed can tick a few more boxes with its dark melodies and mostly clean vocals. Album closer ‘Seed Of Ferocity’ is very epic sounding with a little hint of Candlemass to it (which is no bad thing).
This is a wicked album of memorable, classic death metal that should be purchased sharpish.
(8.5/10 Mark Eve)
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