Review of Lay Down Rotten - Gospel Of The Wretched

Now THIS is how I like my death metal…

Though this is the band’s fifth album, it's my first introduction to this German quintet, and it wont be my last as Gospel of the Wretched delivers everything I enjoy about death metal in spades; chunky, epic melodics reminiscent of Amon Amarth (the opening title track could have come straight of The Avenger), a huge down tuned sense of devastating groove that culls from the Danish/Dutch death metal scene (Hail of Bullets, Dawn of Demise, The Cleansing, Moker etc.) and throw in guest appearances from Martin Van Drunen (Hail of Bullets, Asphyx), Dan Swano (who also mixed and mastered the album) and Martin Grewe (Morgoth), and the recipe is intact for a virtually flawless death metal album.

With Swano’s beefy mix and some nice deep growls, all 9 tracks on Gospel of the Wretched leap out of the speakers with a polished mid range intensity and when you add just enough melody to give it a bit of a Vehemence feel, you often don’t realize you are listening to a melodic death metal album. Especially when you throw in such furious blasts, lurches and HUGE grooves as heard on the blistering mid album trio “Altering the Whore,” “Conditioning the Weak” and “He Who Shows Hate” as well as the uber chunky “When All Becomes Nothing” and menacing chorus of closer “Where Spirits Lie Dead”. All of it perfectly balanced between melody and restrained brutality.

How or why Metal Blade has chose to make this, one of the more complete and enjoyable death metal releases of 2009 from a long running band, a digital only release bewilders me (hence the rapid fire treatment) when the likes of 3, Neaera, Darkness Dynamite, Starring Janet Leigh, Paria and others get a full CD release. The new As You Drown album Reflection– another similarly solid death metal effort, is getting a full CD treatment - why not this?

Release Details

Lay Down Rotten

Gospel Of The Wretched

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