Kommand : "Death Age"

I guess it is going to be a death metal week. This band from Pittsburgh has been getting a great deal of praise, but I just listened to a damn fine album from a death metal band from San Francisco, that is going to be hard to beat if all these guys have to offer is blunt force trauma. The second song bleeds out from the first one with a uniform drive. This monochromatic aggression makes it feel like just a faster progression, of what they opened the album. The murky production might work for Incantation, but I already have the Incantation albums. That Spinebreaker album, has a much crisper guitar sound that served the songs better , so this album is becoming the what not to do side of the coin when it comes to death metal. 

I like the darker turn of 'Global Death' so I am curious to hear if they are going to go somewhere with it. The funny thing is I have read other journalists, saying how they did not prefer the more doom oriented passages, which makes me wonder what fucking album were they listening to or do they just no know shit about shit when it comes to metal. There is a slight Slayer like mood to those more deliberate moments that give a moment of reflection that is needed. 'Polar Hideout" just has aggression going for it. It barrels right at you with a wall of hammering guitars. The only thing worse is that pattering snare pattern that is the one sound I do not suffer when it comes to death metal. Yet this is what powers "Fleeing Western Territories" at the onset of the songs. They pull it together a little more , but it is not wowing me. 

Is Entombed an influence on this band. More than likely. That does not make them any cooler, unless they were to break out into a "Wolverine Blues' style groove. They do groove on their own terms with this one. Then comes that snare pattern I hate that sounds like a mongoloid beating off. I will damned if they do not start of the last song with that same annoying beat. Words like hypnotic were used to described their sound that lead me to believe that was the imagination of an avid glue sniffer.  They do find some atmosphere to stomp into before the song ends. I will give this album a 7, it has it's moments, and if you just want heavy then this might fill that need, I just endure too many death metal albums over the course of the year, to have time for something like this.