Vomitory
Primal Massacre
7
Being a 15 year old Swedish death metal band, Vomitory sure has their work cut out for them. You couldn't really call them old-school revivalists, as I'm pretty positive they've been playing the same style all along, so they're not really reviving anything; Just continuing where a lot of bands left off.
Played at a rather upbeat tempo, Vomitory combines black metal riffing with a death metal sound, rounding it all off with a punk/hardcore spirit. It's that classic driving rhythm, extremely monotone guttural vocals, and continual blast beats that will unmistakenly pigeonhole this album as "old school". Not to mention the semi-frequent Slayer break working in conjunction with Entombed's trademark pick-scrapes and solos. It's definitely a refined style, leaning more towards the thrash end of the death metal spectrum, while retaining a little more melody. The punk leanings are certainly prevalent enough. The musicianship is top notch, as Vomitory does what they've set out to do and nothing more, nothing less. They don't make the mistake of trying to over-extend their abilities, and in my book, that makes for a good band.
Signed to Metal Blade, it's pretty clear that no matter how dated the music sounds, the production's going to be completely modern. Everything's mixed well, nothing overpowering and you can honestly hear every note picked. The guitar doesn't exactly have that classic fuzzy tone, and you can actually hear the bass pounding perfectly. The vocals, which are easily the weakest part about Primal Massacre due to their unforgivingly boring nature, almost sound good.
It's really unfortunate that I just don't have a lot to say about this album. I've tried and I've tried, but really, nothing really comes to me. Primal Massacre is a well-executed and solid release, but beyond that, there's not really much to say. This has all been done before, and I'm sure Vomitory would be the first to agree. It doesn't offer any sort of innovation, but it's pretty impossible to get any closer to playing the original style of Swedish death metal.
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VomitoryOpus Mortis VIII
4/26/2011