There’s no shortage of Undead bands in the metal graveyard, its an obvious name and there’s no less than 14 bunches of ghouls using the moniker according to Metal Archives. This is an international group whose members are largely made up of Brits and Spaniards. They released EP’s in 2015 and 16 which both caught my attention and are now back with their debut album. You can no doubt guess what sort of noise they make by the name and one look at the Repulsion like artwork is enough to leave you horrified in more ways than one. This slab of Existential Horror complete with an R certificate tells us we are in for an album of Relentless Death Metal From The Grave; well we wouldn’t have it any other way.

The 9 tracks here are just what you would pretty much expect, nothing is broken apart from a few limbs and there’s no fixing needed. Undead can still shuffle around the cemetery terrorizing whoever they encounter and before you can utter the immortal line “they’re coming to get you Barbara” they are off looking for flesh to feast upon. ‘Haunted By Hate’ barrels in with some swift and punishing drumming, guitars chunder and vocals courtesy of V Repulse gurgle and snarl ravenously. Heads should be banging around quickly at this deathly autopsy and the international feel of it gives it some identity the music not particularly aligning itself to any expected death metal hemisphere be it the likely hotbeds of the USA or Sweden. Tracks are done and dusted without necessary drawing out, there may well be a bit of wild guitar soloing thrown in but these meaty morsels don’t have time to particularly fester and become riddled with maggots. These zombies are pretty fast-moving and don’t particularly shuffle along but we can forgive them for that after all this is music not a film and the likes of ‘Masters Of Mankind’ show the Deceased are quickly going for the throat and happy to make a bloody mess; table manners be damned. There is some serious Entombed worship cropping up on the instrumental opening of ‘Sin & Death’ bringing a bit of an HM2 horror show to things before the rancid mainframe of the song ploughs in on foul breath and gore-splattered vocals. Everything is executed at a lean mean 3-4 minutes and the album rattles along at a suitably cracking pace which doesn’t allow any staleness to set in.

Like ‘Santa Muerte’ itself you could easily describe this as the personification of death and a neat instrumental break at the culmination of this particular number adds a dash of morbid atmosphere. ‘City Of Silence’ may by description give a feel of a foggy Fulci landscape of the living dead but it’s a snappy and snarly one, danger lurking round every corner and one with a strangulating guitar solo to boot. The ravaging melody of the title track is fast and punishing and although this ticks many tried and tested boxes and is hardly the most original album you will hear if you are a fan of old-school death metal without any gimmicks this is definitely going to hit the bloody mark. Done in just over a half an hour and not offering anything much in the way of a hiding place to take a breather this Undead troop have delivered a good solid debut and an album that deserves a place in any self-respecting coffin.

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/curseoftheundead

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/existential-horror