So here we have the debut LP from a South American death metal crew, released on a Russian label and being blasted out here in sunny Colchester. Talk about diversity in action!
Evil Reborn is a Venezuelan band that formed in 2012. This is their second release and follow up to the ‘Bendita Malovelencia’ EP back in 2013. Now bolstered with a second guitarist – Alfredo Herrera and a new bass player – Jesus Maniero, Evil Reborn sound fat, powerful and destructive on every one of the nine tracks here. Pretty much a melting pot of all your favourite death metal bands and with a heavy thrash vibe to a lot of the riffs these young’uns crank out a wicked blend of death metal which, although sounding ‘classic’ still ripples with a more modern song writing style and groove. Nice to see in this genre which when you say a new band has an ‘old school sound’ it usually churns means Swedeath worship by the sack load.
Following the brief news report style intro we’re off into ‘Black Dahlia’ and there’s those classic chugging thrash metal riffs being hurled at you one after the other before we’re off like a whippet with its tail on fire into speedville! These boys can play and I’ve got to give props to guitarist Jorge Medina who produced this gem as the sound is crystal clear without sounding processed to fuck. Every instrument is up there battering you, especially Jesus Maneiro’s jazzy bass licks. The song writing on this record is top notch and the variety on display here really gives you something to wrap your lug’oles round. There’s your standard blasts, Meshuggah nudging tempo changes, classic solo’s and Victor Chaparro’s growling vocals fluctuate from being all ‘Glen Benton’ one minute to sounding like Trevor Strnad the next with a bit of slammy ‘bree bree’ sprinkled here and there (although thankfully not too much as I fuckin’ hate that bollocks). This ensures zero boredom and maximum replay value.
This is a surprisingly good album from a band that has obviously taken care to sound as fresh as possible while making their roots evident. There are only 500 physical copies (499 now) so get hold of it sharpish!
(8/10 Mark Eve)
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