Blood Red Throne :"Union of Flesh and Machine"

This kind of death metal generally bores me even if a former member of Satyricon is in the band or not. Their is not much to distinguish the first two songs from one another. The deep gurgled vocals fall in line with the kind of Cannibal Corpse brutality going on here. If a band is this heavy they will often impress me with the sheer power my ears are hit with. This time round it's more of a test of endurance. I get determined to get through album I do not for see maximum enjoyment being gained from and I will power through like I am attempting to do here. The annoying blasting that I don't like when it comes to death metal shows up on " Patriotic Hatred". Some of the guitar work is pretty decent, but the monotone vocals and myopic sonic scope of this band begin to wear on me. These songs are not long drawn out affairs, but condensed into tightly packed meat machines. There is a little more groove in some places than others "Martyrized" being one of those.

Of course the drummer is going to be on point, when he stays clear of that still snare patten I don't like . These guys have been at it long enough to be very polished at what this is. The problem is that what this is begins to not feel very heavy to me as it's all so monochrome. The Cannibal Corpse worship reaches a peak on "Exposed Mutation". I'm a little confused as to what a label is thinking much less the band. If I want to listen to Cannibal Corpse, I have their albums and have been listening to them when the mood strikes me since High School.  So why would any have use for something so derivative is what this makes me wonder. The bar is set pretty low when it comes to death metal, as half the bands are either worshipping Incantation or Morbid Angel, some Death and Carcass thrown in for good measure. "Primal Recoil" proves they are good at playing this, but have no interest in breaking any new ground.

Their cover of Preist's"Leather Rebel" is played at a more break neck speed, and the vocal are gurgled as they have been the entire album, from a guitar perspective I suppose this is pretty decent, and at least they gave a nod in the direction of the metal gods, but Six Feet Under covers Priest all the time. "Mary Whispers of Death" might be more impressive if not heard in the context of this album, it's a decent death metal song, but on such a dynamically flat album it's hard to stand out. I'll give this album a 4.