Yet again I am here to bring you more Death Metal and this time I wish to answer the question what makes Death Metal so appealing? Well to be frank all genres of Metal are ridiculously broad so as far as I’m concerned when you begin your Metal journey you inevitably fall down one of the genre tagged rabbit holes and find yourself obsessed. For me with my prior love of Horror cinema I slipped upon the guts of decay and tumbled head first into a well of grizzly viscera. Now I have become so bathed in gore that I cannot escape and am doomed to walk the earth as a rot covered monument.
Bringing the sickness this time around are the Swiss Death Metallers Calcined. Formed in 2008 the band have fought their way to the recording studio with their first full length release in 2015 entitled Tormenting Attractions. The airwaves since rung silent until in 2018 where we are now blessed with the arrival of Discipline the bands second full length studio album released through Great Dane Records. However the melting pot of iron vomit is bubbling over with Death Metal, will Calcined be the special brew we need in an already overpopulated tomb?
There is one word that I would like to use to sum Discipline up, vicious. The album is a frantic terror of gigantic proportions. Hideous to behold and deformed into a unique blend of Grindcore infused Death Metal. To call Discipline Deathgrind would probably be incorrect as there is more of a Death Metal structure to the songs but the Grind influence is certainly very present. Rapturous drums shoot forth with speed and hunger whilst the unique vocals encircle us in morbid inspiration. Vocally this album really is a cut above the rest I can’t remember hearing such unique Death Metal vocals since my introduction to Cattle Decapitation, a blend of guttural growls, old school flare and dare I say Crust Punk make up the backbone of this release.
This may all be very well, something new and intriguing but it isn’t very well backed up with memorability. Whilst the overall sound of Discipline is a sonic journey of intrigue the finer points of maintaining the listeners interest are waning. Macbeth (Act.V Sc.1) Has its moments where the vocals are almost Blackened in their epic style of booming delivery but as far as solidifying interest there is little more than that. It leaves for the album being much like a block of extremity, which may well be good for a full album experience but doesn’t give the listener much to grab onto.
All this said I cannot fault Discipline in its overall production and I have to say that Calcined have certainly made a fan out of me. I would very much be willing to keep a close eye on this band. So they may fail at hooking you in with memorable songs but they won’t fail at piquing your interest. I don’t think this is everything Calcined have to give and I can honestly see them progressing to bigger and better things in the future, it would be such a shame to see the talent of this band wasted on albums as ineffective as this.
(6/10 George Caley)
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