Death metal and tentacles; a match made in…er… Somewhere I don’t want to visit. Archaic death metal, this French band are, apparently, though and it’s their first album clocking in at a death metal commendable 30 odd minutes which promises no fat and heads down riffing.
‘Feastering The Undead’ has a pretty standard guitar opening, a nice gargling scream and ponderous notes before they engage the clutch and clatter away. There’s a good density and bass to the music, a nice pounding drive and attack. ‘Dissolved’ just barrels into it from the off; there’s an almost hardcore tinge to this somehow, something that reminds me of early Integrity in the vocals and sharp fast riffing. Not a bad thing at all ‘Eternal’ lessens that feel and the slow, menacing moments are well handled and the time changes smooth.
This isn’t dirty old school stuff though; whilst not being by any means slick or tech there is a clarity here and the speed sometimes definitely pushes it to death thrash and they have now problem getting a nasty groove on as in the fast, insistent ‘Lord Of Discord’ or ‘Main, Kill, Burn’.
When they drop the speed, if I’m honest there is something a little lacking in the atmosphere. It’s hard to say what or why but it’s like the touch on the riff is always too eager to crank up again rather than revelling in the power of the slow and becomes more something they want to get over with. On the plus side when they mostly speed tracks like ‘Blood Red Tentacle’ really do hit the mark. And it must be added they do sound like they are having more than a little malevolent fun here too which is just great.
As a debut this is very promising – that speedy groove they can get into is pure headbanging mayhem waiting to happen and when it combines with that (as I noted) kind of Integrity vibe it really is pretty great. Yes, the slower elements I find need just a little more work but the actual tempo changes work very well and there’s some great little songs in here.
Not reinventing anything but a neat beginning all the same.
(7/10 Gizmo)
Leave a Reply