Cadaver : "the Age of the Offended"

 This Norwegian death metal band is helmed by Anders Odden, who has played with everyone from Satyricon to  the Young Gods and Pigface. He is joined by Dirk from Megadeth to create this album. Anders is likely handling bass duties in the studio as well. They bring to the table everything you might want from death metal. They are dark, powerful and hooky. This opening track has a slight Carcass feel. His rasp is an articulated midrange, that allows the lyrics to be discerned. The second song finds a bit of a punk edge creeping through. I can also hear a slight Entombed influence on the title track. I like the big middle finger vibe of the lyrics here. 

There is a more traditional death metal sound that relies on an unrelenting chug to power the aggressive guitar attack. "the Shrink" has hookier riffing, that gives the vocals more effective places to slither than the previous song. There is a melodic dissonance to the middle section that breaks things up well. There is almost more of a thrashing groove to "the Crawl of the Cadaver". Not the first time this album has given a more anthemic approach, though it also veers off into faster blasting sections, so perhaps not as focused song writing wise.  "While "the Drowning Man" starts at a more deliberate slither, with punchy accent the throb of the song, becomes mired down in a Morbid Angel like grind. Even then it's still pretty enjoyable.

There is a faster more 90s death metal feel to "the Sicker, the Better".  By the time the album winds it's way to "Dissolving Chaos" everything begins to take on a more uniform sonic color. Which can be typical for the hyper aggressive nature of death metal. What they do have going for them is the very deliberate nature of the riffs rather than pouring on the speed to make things feel rushed. "Deadly Metal" feels more like early Slayer mixed with death metal. "The Craving" also hovers around the more thrashing side of death metal. "Freezing Isolation" is not far removed from what we have heard from this album thus far. I will give this album an 8.5, it's fun death metal that brings and often darker haze to things while not rushing the songs with needless speed to prove black metal is not the only thing bands from Norway can do.