Mangled Torsos – Drawings of the Dead

Article by Svennerick

Not shortly after its inception, Death metal saw not only a stagnation in popularity, but also in creativity and artistic spirit. A genre that peaked and that had already developed most of its subgenres before even being given a concrete name showed the metal scene something new in the mid 80s and early 90s. But that magic eventually faded and now Death metal has only seen a small amount of innovation or peaks in the last two decades, since we mostly end up listening to band worshipping Gorguts‘ Obscura, yet missing its ferocity, or a band creating an entire album consisting out of blast beats and overly technical riffs, which feel more like filler than forwards moving music. Bands lost the connection to what made Death metal special in the first place and would rather waste their impressive talent and devotion trying to rehash what Necrophagist or Spawn Of Possession did in the early 2000s with great success.

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Uncovering The mysteries of Molested – Blod-Draum

Norway has never been known for being an exponent of death metal, barring the early contributions of Darkthrone and the parent bands to some of the greatest black metal groups to emerge from the country. The brainchild of Borknagar main songwriter Øystein Garnes Brun, Molested was a brief flash in the pan before the mediocrity of Borknagar would define his career.

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Imprecation – Damnatio ad Bestias (2019)

Imprecation return six years after their great release Satanae Tenebris Infinita with Damnatio ad Bestias which refers to a Roman game that consisted of allowing beasts to kill various criminals. Here it possibly refers to the various Christian martyrs that were killed this way and possibly a reference to the Morbid Angel song “The Lion’s Den” which deals with the exact same topic. Here the band are aware of the success of their previous record and attempt to replicate but with a slightly modern touch that takes away from the immersion yet remains an enjoyable listen that pushes certain previous ideas to their limit.

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Riff Analysis: Master – “What Kind of God”


Master on their seminal record On the Seventh Day God Created… Master operated on the principle of taking one idea and pounding it into the listener’s brain as much as possible without droning on and maintaining some form of forward movement. Paul Speckmann’s riffs are simple and straightforward but there was always something there that pushed them above the hordes of bands making minimalistic Hardcore influenced Death metal. The first actual riff of the first song “What Kind of God” is a perfect example of what made Master deceptively unique at the riff level.

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Cult of the Horns – Chapter I – Domination

Cult of the Horns are a French one man band from Bordeaux with one full length released to this day. The band’s aesthetic is that of the typical NWN “goat-something” band but beyond the corpse paint and cheesy titles lies an honest combination of Death and Black metal which unique band member Mephisto makes an honest attempting at fusing both genres and though this record fails at times, there are a lot of interesting particularities, making this an above average listen.

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Retrospective : Intestine Baalism – An Anatomy of the Beast


Intestine Baalism are a Death metal band formed in the suburbs of Tokyo in 1991, their first full length only came out in 1997, having only released a pair of demos featuring songs that ended up on this album, it is safe to confirm that Intestine Baalism is a latecomer to a genre that had already seen it’s apex and was now slowly descending into Brutal and Technical Death metal territory. Anatomy of a beast takes advantage of the power of hindsight to successfully fusion the works of Carnage,Dismember and Suffocation against the more Heavy metal derived melodies of Sentenced, bringing to life a potent record that is at times just as peculiar as the band’s name.

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