Blood Monolith : "The Calling of Fire"

Not unlike Nails, the band Shelby Lermo hails from this band plays a grinding style of death metal that is high on the intensity, though more guttural and blasting than the hardcore attack of Nails. This band also features members of Undeath and Genocidal Pact. At opening bands' most melodic moments, it carries a Slayer-like throb. "The Owl in Daylight" has a more thrashing groove that hooks you in before they go hurtling into a dizzying display of hyper-aggression. There is some thought put into the songwriting, though their intention is to steamroll you with the sheer weight of their sound that hits like a sonic predator. 

I can always appreciate a good Conan reference, so the title "Prayer to Crom" stands out, though it is largely just a blathering blast of dense riffs of the most brutal order. Midway into things slows to a more deliberate punch, but it does not really grab me. The occasional sample between songs provides a modest amount of atmosphere. The difference between what is being done here and what made the golden age of American death metal so endearing is that bands like Morbid Angel and Deicide had hooky songs. Even early Cannibal is not as brutal as it seems when compared to today's more grindcore flavor assaults on your ears. 

The battery this album descends into at best comes closer to when Deicide stormed your eardrums back in the 90s, though without any regard for anything but sheer speed and intensity, which shifts into more of a gallop in a few places for "Cleansing". At the beginning of "Slaughter Garden," it seems like there might be more hope for even a more nuanced death metal riff that holds some thrash in its veins, but alas, they give in to a storm of sound that overcomes them and the listener.  When there is a more deliberate touch toward the end of this song, it's too little, too late. There is a little Morbid Angel in the DNA of the last song as it finds more a mechanical grind. The vocal stay at the same low gurgled growl as they have for the entire album. I will give this one a 7, as they are heavy as hell, but not much in the wya of consistent songwriting.It drops May 16th on Profound Lore.  

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