Kruelty : "Untopia"

 It's time for things to get heavy in the best way possible, is what I thought going into this album. It seemed like a safe bet as . Japan's death metal/ hard core hybrid is back. They started things with   all the groove with them that made their previous album such a hit here last time. While I might not be crazy about the snare sound this time, everything else works on the first couple songs seems to work  well enough to distract me from it. It is only when they charge at you full speed ahead that this is noticeable. Both death metal and hard core owe a great deal to thrash and on "Harder than Before" this lineage is noticed most. The vocals stay more firmly on the side of death metal this time around. 

When "Burn the System" stomps to life, it seems like it is an extension of the previous song. I think the more death metal direction this album seems to have taken, also comes with the price of creating more of uniform sound that can allow it's momentum, to make these songs start to sound the same. "Reincarceration" slows to wallow in it's death metal filth, but it fails to open up the pit with the same grind their last album did. It is not until the end of the song that a break down style riff emerges, but double bass accenting it enough to keep things clearly on the more metal side of the equation. By the time the record winds to "Maze of Suffering" I am beginning to feel a little disappointed as this is becoming just another death metal album. 

"Manufactured Insanity" does find a few head stomping riffs emerge that owe more to their hard core side, but at this point it is beginning to feel like too little too late as this album is not as dark or heavy as the one before it. The death track is more death metal that just sounds like everyone else , and offers little of the beat down they dished out last time. I will round this down to an 8, which is still better than most bands, but falls short of what they delivered on the album before. That said if you are a fan of death metal this is still worth your time.