Hmmmm, tasty. I don’t know about you, but there’s something about really gnarly, HM-2 pedal guitar tone death metal that I just can’t give up. It’s like a fry-up. You know it’s going to clog your arteries, but hell if it isn’t just what you need sometimes.
All of which brings me to this number from Sweden’s Feral. This is the band’s fourth full length offering, and it’s the first time I’ve personally spent any time with their output, albeit I’d heard the name spoken by a couple of friends. It’d be easy to just listen to this once and think “yeah, it’s oldschool Swedish Death Metal”, and move on. Thing is, there’s a bit more to it than that.
So yeah, the scaffolding is old-school Death Metal. The furnishings though? There’s some interesting things there. Firstly, this is the most damned groovy OSDM album I’ve heard in absolutely bloody ages. Second track, “Vile Malediction” incredibly seems to out-Bloodbath Bloodbath. The central groove here is so infectious the World Health Organisation needs to put out a warning. Listen closely though, and you’ll hear the other influences – the staccato rhythms that bring to mind the better moments of Hardcore – the sick sounds that Abscess / Autopsy brought to the table, and the necrotic flavours of Symphonies-era Carcass.
Interested yet? Well, I hope so. There’s an absolute treasure trove of tremendous riffage to be found here – slab after slab of lead-heavy filth being poured on top of each other. “The Devouring Storm” – with its dizzying and slightly off-kilter intro gives the feeling of being disorientated and stunned, before the main bludgeon of the song comes in and batters you round the back of the head. Special mention to vocalist David Nilsson who sounds like an absolute lunatic on this – at one moment producing bellowing yet decipherable grows, then shrieking like a banshee with its head on fire.
“Into the Ashes of History”, one of the final tracks on the album, shows why Feral are a cut above the usual down tuned buzzsaw-axe sound brigade: it’s actually interesting. They’ve put some significant thought into actually writing songs rather than slapping together a few riffs and thinking “that’ll do”. There’s menace here; atmosphere and some subtlety – but of course still the moments that kick off a decent palm-muted chug with an “ueeerugh”. It’s hard to stand out from the crowd these days – when I started reviewing music erm…around 25 years ago now…there were quite often some stinkers. These days, the worst you get is average. Against that backdrop, to produce something that stands out – is interesting enough to keep my attention, be heavier than a steel-elephant carrying heavy shopping and produce an atmosphere of their own is rare. Slowing things down from time to time and bringing the doom elements in? Inspired.
Fantastic album, and now I’m off to check out their back catalogue. Highly recommended.
(8/10 Chris Davison)
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