I like many true old school death metal fans have been around long enough to realise that Asphyx was and always has been a massive influence on the death metal scene. The lucky few who got to see them utterly annihilate Party San 2007 have memories that will stay with them till they die. That performance was the catalyst required to encourage the band to reform properly and start releasing new material, the result of which was “Death… The Brutal Way” a great return to the scene that showcased Asphyx’s unique crushing doom death style. Three years later and shed loads of festival appearances Asphyx are back with “Deathhammer” a veritable stick of dynamite up the arse of technical death metal and deathcore bands on exactly how death metal should be played. The old school term is bandied about far too often but at least Asphyx really are old school death metal. Single guitar death metal bands often sound fine on album but live come across as tepid and devoid of power but Asphyx do both with total ease as the album goes straight into “Into The Timewastes” with no intro or gentle introductions. The chainsaw guitar is fully intact and newly sharpened to cleave new mangy heads. Immediately apparent is the rawer sound overall and genuinely dirty and guttural atmosphere that pervades through the album, as the opener song is a fantastic head smashing opener.
The tempo continues unabated on the title track but as with all Asphyx albums the spotlight is entirely on cranium crushing riffs and this has one that will pulverise your skull to dust as you chant “Deathhammer” during your oblivion. Lengthy songs decorate Asphyx’s repertoire and here we have “Minefield” a seven minute monster that has that thunderous bass tsunami and a melody indicative of the bands very early influence, Celtic Frost and even the newer Tom G project Triptykon I guess as well. The slow riffing style torturously hammers before a subtle change in the riff seems to have your very thorax as its focus of attention with its pounding beat. There is a Boltthrower quality on “Of Days When Blades Turned Blunt”, nothing fancy nothing unexpected here just solid bruising death metal.
The doom death style returns on “Der Landser” which owes quite a bit to epic Candlemass with its shifting tempo changes and total headbanging ethos. Alternating the fast and slow tunes is expected from Asphyx as their releases often follow a similar template as the next speedy tune is “Reign Of The Brute”, it does what you expect with its awesome punishing riffs. Having listened to this release a few times I can’t find a single tune I don’t like or thought they could have omitted that one. Each song is memorable whether it’s the slow fucked up pounding or the faster skull crushing tunes, Asphyx has plenty to offer and none more so than “The Flood” which reminds me of the “Last One On Earth” material with its upbeat tempo and catchy feel. Something has to be said about Van Drunen’s vocal terror, the guy has that inhuman ability to be truly guttural but crystal clear on his vocal delivery. You can feel his throat ripping apart I’m sure of it. “We Doom You To Death”, well it does what it says I guess with its sporadic time changes and obliterating density.
As you’ve probably guessed this is an album sure to end up in my top ten, probably five of the year and if you’ve never given Asphyx a try then you really are missing out on a band that is unique within death metal. The vinyl copy has been ordered pronto.
(9/10 Martin Harris)
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