Sometimes, all you need is straight forward Death Metal. Sure, melodic, brutal and technical variants do the job with their take on one of the most diverse genres in music but stripping all that variety away and going back to the basics is needed to freshen things up. With the recent cessation of atmospheric doom five piece Kroh, Paul Harrington, one of the mainstays of the UK metal scene has teamed up with veteran guitarist Stuart Pendergrass (H.O.D, Diamanthian) to do what was mentioned before; strip back the bullshit and go straight up old school Death Metal! Get ready to headbang and adopt your best stern looks.
“Sickening Annihilation” is your traditional DM album – 9 tracks which take up the best part of an hour and a nod to the bands who helped cement the sound, feel and status of the genre. The moment the opening effort, the title track of the album begins, it is hard to miss the main influence in the sound; this has Death woven into its DNA. From the nihilistic lyrics which are delivered with a formidable roar to the intricate riffs and exotic sounding lead-work, the unmistakable influence of Death is there.
This is a common theme with the release, every track has that Death feel to it, be it the leads, composition or structuring, you would be forgiven if you were awaiting the sound of Chuck or Steve DiGiorgio to go off on a bass wank-fest of notes. Whilst this may deter some, merely treating this as a ‘clone’ of Death, there are individual aspects to Terrible Claw’s sound. The more modern production and recording aspects leads to a tighter sound which compounds the heaviness. If you doubt this, listen to “Statistical Apocalypse” and the brutal sounding breakdown outro. The fact that this album also limits complexity to the occasional rhythmic progression and to the lead guitars also shows the individuality aspect Terrible Claw have. By bypassing the ‘need’ to overload tracks with intricate riffs and odd time signatures, the straightforward approach delivers some solid headbanging moments, “Inconvenient Truth” and the instrumental track “Ionosphere” display this best. There are other sparks of influences in the mix also. Vocally, you get some slight hints of John Tardy, just with significantly less dramatics (just rough and raw!) and there are some touches of Atheist in there sound wise.
In all, Terrible Claw have put together a solid, no nonsense old school Death Metal release which serves as a great reminder of the early 90’s sound and feel. Whilst it may be a touch repetitive, it is effective in sound and delivery!
(7/10 Fraggle)
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