Death is June- Left to Die : "Initium Mortis"

 

Two original Death members, Rick Rozz and Terry Butler, are joined by members of Gruemsome Matty Harvey and Gus Rios, who have been performing in this project as a tribute to their early "Lepersy" and "Spiritual Healing" days of the band, which is my favorite. It is not until the clean guitar leading into "Zombie" that it feels like we are getting to hear something outside of being in the vein of Death, which worked great for the first three songs, but it would have gotten old otherwise if they continued to churn in that direction without bringing anything new. There is more of a traditional metal feel when they go off into "Zombie".

The lyrics to "Witch of Hell" feel more like something Venom would have done, but the vocals have purpose and balance everything out. Not sure if this is the direction CChuck would have gone, but oh well, it works in this context, and perhaps it is how they feel they get their own identity. "Rise of Satan' has a more thrash approach, which makes sense as this music came out of the thrash scene. In fact, in early death metal, the lines between the two were blurred. They continue to pour on the speed for "Summoned to Die," which captures the spirit of this era more effectively. 

"Mantas" takes this in a more Venom-like direction, which shows Venom's influence on the genre. This also shows how the ovcals had more purpose back in the good old days. "Slaughterhouse" benefits from a more memorable chorus than verse, which races along the typical tremolo-picked death metal riff.. One cool thing about this album is the compact, efficient style of writing songs that gets everything you need done in under three and a half minutes. The last song also chugs into the intersection of where thrash met death metal. Overall, this album does not try to have its own identity as it's clearly a tribute to a specific era, but it works well, and they nailed what they wanted to do. Death fans dying for new music should be appeased. I will give it a 9. It drops on Relapse Records July 19th. 

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Death is June- Gruesome : "Silent Echoes"

 While there is a lot of hype around this band paying homage to Death, I don't hear a ton of Chuck in what they are doing, though in some of the more progressive passages, you might be able to trace it back. Instead, there is a thrashing attack that brings "Arise" era Sepultura to mind. The rapid-fire double bass of ex-Malevolent Creation drummer Gus Rios is the driving heartbeat of these songs. "A Darkened Window" finds many twists and turns in the brisk riffs unwinding. 

It was around fragility that the formula these songs are forged began to allow this to fade into the background. The scowl of the vocals is very compressed in the mix, and uttered in a taunt, punchy fashion rather than being a ringing roar. This is one of the areas that gives me Sepultura vibes. The drumming does take more chances here as he lets up on some of the more relentless bombardment. This creates space for haunting guitar melodies to emerge. 'Shards" finds a slithering groove breaking up the more ranging attack. The drumming continues to impress. By the time we get to the title track, it is beginning to sound more uniform, as the vocals are barked out similarly to the previous song. The more deliberate moments are the most interesting. 

"Voice Within the Void" does experiment slightly, but does not venture far from what they have established here. "Fragment of Psyche" pours on the speed again. Perhaps the aggression is given more focus, though some memorable riffs come to the surface. Guitar solos seem to flourish a little more. The Death vibes are tempered by a Sepultura-like thrashing once again here, that is broken up by the more technical precision, as they lay on the speed. There is a pretty killer chug in the middle of the song, but the rule here is cool riffs alone do not a good song make, and it's a hard and fast rule, pretty much like the vibes of this one.  The patter of the drums also brings a thought to mind about how the production might be a little too pristine and diminish the impact of the heaviness, making it feel more like thrash. In particular, here reminds me of Coroner. 

The Coroner feel of the previous song has me going into the last song, pondering the line between death metal and thrash. The song gives me more questions than answers in this regard. Things shift under the guitar solo, and if you are super-into guitar solos, this will be a key selling point for you. I can hear where people are going to love this. I could use a marginally more organic feel to the guitar tone. I will give this one a 9, certainly putting in the top tier of death metal so far, but there are a handful of albums that have given me a little closer to what I prefer in this regard, but these guys are masters at what they are doing for sure.Relapse Records is releasing this.  

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Gruesome :" Dimensions of Horror"

This band was spawned after being a touring Death tribute band, as both Matt Harvey and drummer Gus Rios, played on the Death to All tour. So this sounds like a mix of the first two Death albums. The first song brings a sense of nostalgia, but how long this tribute can keep me engaged is another question.  Sure I like the first two Death albums, but why not just download them? In my teen days I remember several locals bands sounding like this so Death influence in death metal is nothing new. The other side of the coin is these guys are fucking good at  re-creating this. So if you are a super crazed Death fan or too young to have caught Chuck and the Boys back in the day then this makes a little more sense. By the time I get to "Amputation" it's wearing on me a little. There are some cool riffs mixed in, but the rule here is cool riffs alone don't make good songs.  I think it's a good thing there are only six songs , because this would be very tiring if there were twelve.

They bgin to pull the plug on "Hellbound" and inject more groove and songwriting into things , making this the album's high point. The opening riff to "Dimensions of Horror" feels like the are leaning in a more Spiritual Healing Direction" the dirty things up on the verse.The less than two and a half minute "Seven Doors" is pretty straight forward death metal and even when Death did it struck me more as filler rather than having any real musical weight on it's own accord . Lyrically growling about zombies could not bore me any more.The title track's  opening riff feels like thet are leaning in a more Spiritual Healing Direction" the dirty things up on the verse. They go back into the "Pull the Plug" type groove on this one, but it's so good it's hard to complain. I'll give this album a 7 as it hardly has an original moment, though I think that's the point. It's well played so Death fans only who are needing a fix or the screams of bloody gore.