This Washington band emerged from the late 90s and is on the more extreme end of death metal. The hammer had a great deal of blunt force trauma to your ears. The second song is more unrelenting than the first, which is perhaps a miscalculation regarding just how raw, savage, and blitzed out on aggression you can get before it all turns into a blur. The title track finds everything speeding by you until it gets to the guitar solo. The rule here of "cool riffs alone do not a good song make" hits a band like this, which pivots on the cool riff particularly hard.
The gurgle of the vocals does not really help much when it comes to songwriting, as everything is colored by the vocal shade of gurgle. Things continue to blur with little dynamics to distinguish them. "Three Rivers of Poison". They do go off on a tangent with the guitar solo for this song. "Grimoire of Blood" is a blur of buzzing guitars that all run together as the vocals gurgle at random under this. The more deliberate angular lumber of "The Devil's Work is Never Done" works better as a song, as it hooks you into the throb.
The last sound just pounds away at a more frantic blitz of grime-ridden guitars. In some ways, this is closer to what Cannibal Corpse does, though more sonic, thanks to the allure of the guitar's savagery. I will give this album a 7.5, as I feel like for a band that has been doing this for some time, they should be further along as songwriters.If yo uare just looking a for a band to beat your ear drums into submissions these guys got your for real.
One thing I like about death n roll bands is they tend to take heart in the songwriting parts of rock music. Obvious these guys really dig Entomb's "Wolverine Blues" album. These guys are however able to translate that in a way that makes it their own thing. The growled vocals can give everything a more uniform sound, I like the darker throb to "Saint" but had to listen to it three times before the song clicked in for me. There is a darker more deliberate punch to "Diving into the Deep". The band does care about songwriting and are all veterans of projects like Lord Almighty and Hopesfall, so they have the know-how. The gritty focus of their sound seems to keep them locked in a similar shade of gray.
There is more of a thrash feel to the tempo picking up on "Criminal" as things get more aggressive. Things do not take the shift into the more creative direction I could hear they were capable of until "Soot & Ash" where the chorus takes a more sung vocal, and the overall song carries a more deliberate tock feel. In some ways "III Blood" makes the most sense to have as a single, as the guitar playing is melodic and catchy it works with what the context of streaming metal radio might sound like these days. I think the previous song was better. "In Ectasy' by merit of its songwriting is more deliberate and catchier.
Then there is almost an 80s rock feel to the riff that opens "On the Run". This does account for catchier songwriting. Say what you about the 80s but the songs have stood the test of time. "Bringing the Worst" also embraces a more purposeful side to their riffing that is more memorable. "Come Alive" marches forward with the triumphant stomp of classic metal. "Almighty Hate' chugs with a darker intensity to close the album. There is a slight tinge of black metal to this, but it's a pretty straightforward song, not the catchiest but effective. I will give this an 8.5, it's not the most original album I have heard, but they are good at what they do. With that said it makes it better than most as they have songs that are not just rushed by you in a feral frenzy like most bands these days. Coming out on October 4th on Forcefield Records.
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