By: Richard Maw
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 19/01/2018
Label: Hells Headbangers Records
Fans of Hooded Menace, Serpentine Path and
traditional Florida
death metal like Obituary or Malevolent Creation can't go wrong here; this is a
great example of the doom/death genre and surely one of the musically darkest
albums you could pick to play out the winter.
“Grotesque
Offerings” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1). House of Gripping Gore
2). Night Gallery
3). Spells of the Necromancer
4). Evil That Haunts This Ground
5). Black Candle Séance
6). Creature Feature
7). Into The Crypts
8). Murderous Mr Hyde
9). Last Drop of Blood
10). Final Resting Place
The Review:
More
doom/death of the darkest order from these dwellers of deepest... Florida. Darkness does
indeed drip forth from opener “House of
Dripping Gore”, but that is not to say that the likes of “Night Gallery” don't swing fairly
mightily. In amongst these seven minute epics, there are some sprightly
interludes (“Spells of the Necromancer”,
“Into The Crypts”, “Final Resting Place”), but for the most part it is a
sprawling and pitch black listen.
The
song titles really do say it all here; “Evil
That Haunts This Ground”, “Black
Candle Séance”- deathly and doomy stuff. It is not without humour- “Creature Feature” is a fine and flighty
song title and the lyrics fit nicely- but how much more black can the music be?
The answer is, of course, none! The tracks across the record are mostly slow
and creep forward with purpose- great riffs, some superb lead work and even
guitar melodies here and there. There are changes of pace here and there- “Last Drop of Blood” is pretty fast and
furious (and superb), but for the most part there is more doom than death here,
I think.
Fans
of Hooded
Menace, Serpentine Path and traditional Florida death metal like Obituary
or Malevolent
Creation can't go wrong here; this is a great example of the
doom/death genre and surely one of the musically darkest albums you could pick
to play out the winter.
“Grotesque
Offerings” is available here
