Attack, attack … Poland’s Uerberos are back with their second album to follow “Tormented by Faith” (2017). The world is spoilt by the abundance of high-quality death metal from Polish bands. The intrigue lies in whether Uerberos manage to stand above the crowd in any way.
Well the first thing is that the sound quality on this album is excellent. We are treated to every ounce of fury. It’s loud, technical, bombastic and driven by evil winds. As ever with Polish death metal, there are subtle guitar lines behind the heavy artillery rumbling towards us, over us and round us. Fires burn and anger exudes. Arguably these songs are formulaic. “Levitation” sounds like “Ruthless Execution”, which sounds like “Beautiful Crimson of Your Blood” and so on. You can’t argue with the energy. Of-course it’s ultra-heavy, and when chaos isn’t erupting, which is most of the time, the drums and guitars are steamrollering us into submission. Technically it’s tight. Forward it drives without pausing for breath. I love the raw aggression. No messing about here. It’s one heavy, rumbling, belligerent track after the next. But whilst it’s like listening to a chainsaw constantly in motion, the structures are good. The breaks are well managed and the sub-structures add more layers of violence and power to this uncompromisingly turbulent production. The harsh vocals preach about mutilation, the stench of roasting flesh, the ignition of demonic fire – you get the idea, I’m sure. It is the story of flaming darkness, to quote a track title, and ghastly suffering. Don’t expect it to “kick on”. It’s a permanent storm. Although nominally divided into 9 tracks with variations on a theme, essentially “Stand Over Your Grave” is 40 minutes of one uniform chunk of technical and tight firepower.
If ever there was a band that was compatible with the Godz ov War label, Uerberos is it. It’s the perfect fit. If you’re after a bit of high intensity death metal, this is for you. There’s nothing left on the table here on “Stand Over Your Grave”, and if there was it would be slivers of rotting corpses. Good album.
(8/10 Andrew Doherty)
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