Death is June - Gates to Hell : "Death Comes to All"

 

This band from Kentucky leans more toward the metalcore side of death metal, but has enough of a Cannibal Corpse influence to keep die-hard death metal fans interested. The album came out in March, so just catching up to see what I missed here with these guys. The second song finds them slowing down into more of a groove. The vocals are recorded with an interesting noise gate on them, which keeps them extra distorted. They are big on the breakdowns, so if you have an aversion to those, take note. I like the first two songs, but to win me over for an entire album, they are going to need more atmosphere and dynamics. 

The riffs going into "Weeping in Pain" are more memorable, but it feels more like deathcore. The double bass is coming at you regularly as the rest of the band stomps into things.  There is more of a Pantera-like groove in a few places before they do wild, technical, syncopated sections. There is no question they are talented and can write a song, but how consistent is the key? When they speed up into a blast beat for "Next to Bleed," it does not feel that necessary.  '21 Sacraments' is where it feels like they are going to the well too many times and using the same tricks again. To a lesser extent, this is the case for "Sacrificial Deed." 

The title track has a much-needed more death metal feels, though that is not to say the crash cymbal does not get slapped around. "Crazed Killers" leans into speed perhaps more than needed. They take note from grindcore and keep the songs short, but cram as many riffs in as they can. By the time we get to "Locked Out," everything is beginning to sound the same to me. Their fetish for breakdowns is not helping this, as the formula gets more predictable. They try to thrash a bit on the last songs to mixed results. I like the use of samples on this one to break things up at least marginally. I will give this one an 8.5, as it might not always be my thing, but they made the album they set out to, and it is more death metal than most bands that do this sort of thing, which is worth something to me . This album dropped on Nuclear Blast.  

pst251