Slam inspired brutal death metal newcomers Voluntary Mortification hail from Lansing, Michigan and seek to deliver some hope for the hopeless through their gargantuan sized riffs. Whilst people might associate slam with silliness and people walking round in circles, swinging their inflatables, it’s also a serious section of the death metal genre spectrum and when it’s executed right, it sounds truly terrifying. So, let’s see if the debut offering ‘Suffer To Rise’ offers that silver lining on the behemoth sized storm cloud heading our way.
The album opens up with a real deep rumbling bass under a sinister atmospheric sample complete with a heartbeat and the sound of someone flatlining before it erupts into a hard hitting, brutal slam friendly death metal attack. Huge vocals with a real powerful impact lay siege, backed up with hammering guitars and pounding drums. It’s a steady paced slam monster of an opening assault and despite the initial sample being its own track, the seamless transition into “Death Trembles” is pulled off well enough to the extent that unless you knew there was a sample based opening track, it all sounds like one single song. “Vindicator” keeps up the siege of slam friendly brutality. The rolling double kick drums and crashing cymbals lead into a faster paced section which has a frantic undercurrent before it slinks into a slower, burst-fire drum led breakdown section of a chorus. This cycle of frantic verses and raw and crushing choruses keeps the pressure on and the almighty heavy breakdown section which packs some pretty deep growls and pounding bass/guitar stabs which will have many heads banging and hammers swinging as it thunders on.
It pretty much keeps up the relentless assault as the album progresses. Formidable vocals which snarl, growl, grunt and make strange noises at times go hand in hand with the seismic rumblings of the bass and drums which effortlessly roll from furious paced to gargantuan stomp with ease. The guitar sound is huge, backed up in part by the bass and all together it just clicks in a way which brutal death metal does. “Valley Of Slaughter” is a track which spits venom and demands headbanging and “Silence” is a titanic groove monster which has a good pacing to its delivery and real solid rhythmic hook. The extended breakdown section with its pounding dissonance is matched by the surging groove of the main sections and the waves of double kick which surface link up great with the pounding nature, tying it all together nicely.
“Demoncratic Society” opens with your typical slam feel. The heavy caveman chug will have folks zombie shuffling in circles before it bursts to life with fire in its delivery. The vocals are tight, going from fierce snarls to primal noises and raw growling whilst the fast paced surging delivery keeps the intensity up. The pace dials off as it descends back to the chugging slam pace and this dance of frantic to pounding repeats through the track, keeping the pacing and momentum going nicely. “The Cull” has a sinister vibe to its dissonant droning chords which ride the relentless drum attack beneath them. Vocal back and forth between wild and deep roars adds another element to the track, providing a good counterpoint to the intense musical backing and again, the delivery is tight, especially in the breakdown section which has a few subtle rhythm shifts to mix up the low tuned abuse of the chugging strings. “Abomination” has a more contemporary death metal groove feel to its delivery. This heavy riff monster continues on with a decent tempo until the 1:30ish mark when it briefly descends into a pounding mini breakdown before it slams back into the grinding groove again. This back and forth has been all across the release and whilst it might be a little predictable at times, its effectiveness is clear for all to hear as it is delivered superbly.
The final trio of tracks, “Suffer To Rise”, “Into Your Hands” and “Crush The Serpent” mostly continue the consistency in the delivery of the tracks, keeping the core elements of groove, raw vocals and massive sounding instruments together. The exception to this is ‘Into Your Hands’ which presents itself as a transition based sample track which could have been removed from the release in all honesty. Be it the pounding delivery which will break through all in its path or the intense and wild death metal ferocity, by the time the release wraps up, you will no doubt feel like you just went 12 rounds with an angry gorilla (or other equally huge animal which would win a fight with a human!).
In all, this is a tremendous album, one all death metal fans should give a listen to. From Carnifex to Suffocation, you get the works of brutally crushing death metal with some solid rhythm work!
(8/10 fraggle)
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