Glorious Depravity : "Death Never Sleeps"

This band features members of Woe, Pyrrhon, and Gravesend. It takes you back to the days when death metal had just emerged from thrash, so the knack for songwriting with hooks over sheer brutality was still intact. Doug Moore's guttural growls are articulated enough that they emerge from being just a gurgle into something articulate enough to give you a hint of what the songs might be about. The riffing on "Stripmined Flesh Extractor" is coherent enough to give it an almost Megadeth-like groove. They tap into the darker tension that fuels Slayer's vibe for " Freshkills Poltergeist". They are not doing anything new here; they are just doing it right. 

The feeling I am getting from this album as these guys, and I know the bands they are from, are jsut metal nerds who in real life are not aggressive people. Lyrically, I am getting this, and it is also what sells Cannibal Corpse a little differently, though Corpse Grinder is a big WoW-playing teddy bear of a guy; he at least appreciates violence in a fantasy setting. This might make him a more aggressive person; maybe they are also just larger dudes with more testosterone, whereas these guys are eating tofu in Brooklyn. The chugs begin to run together midway through the album. There are a few gallops that make my ears perk up here and there. 

'The Devouring Dust' has enough hook to get me back invested, even if it leans in a blast direction at times. "Carnage at the Margins" finds the vocals digging into a lower gurgle at times on the verses, and a more Slayer-tinged aggression in other places. The title track that closes the album is more deliberate than the previous song, which tried too hard. I will give this album a 9; it's very solid and captures the feel they were going for and cares about songwriting, though it's a very competitive year for this genre, so it will likely get overlooked in some circles. It drops on Transcending Obscurity. 

Thanks for reading, give a listen to the song below, and  please "like" and share on social media to give music a voice 

https://www.facebook.com/abysmalhymns

Check out our Podcast here ... https://www.youtube.com/@abysmalhymns666

pst545