By: Richard Maw
“Immaculate Massacre” CD track listing:
The
Review:
Nottingham
noisemongers Mordhau bring some serious death metal grit
to the road to hell here. It's their debut album and one that is full of
distorted bass, chainsaw guitars, vocals with a hint of black metal and a rough
and ready sound that is both very clear and noisy at the same time.
You
get seven tracks of the finest deathly vintage. The band are clearly in thrall
to the original Swe-death masters- in particular Dismember
(to these ears) and why not? If you are going to play in a specific genre, why
not try to emulate the best of the genre you choose?!
Across
the seven tracks, there are plenty of riffs, plenty of thrashing drum beats and
variety to the sound- this isn't just endless blastbeats or mindless brutality;
the likes of “Pig Society” have
great riffs and changes, opener “Temporal
Insanity” is a solid breath of fetid air and there are some atmospheric
passages here and there throughout the album.
It's
hard to pick a stand out as the seven tracks are uniformly strong. A little of
this type of music can go a long way. “Left Hand Path” and “Like
An Everflowing Stream” were not long albums- they were razor sharp and
effective in their economy, as is the case here. I might pick “Where Sunlight Goes To Die” as a
highlight for me- great riffs and I really like the changes- but that said, the
rather epic title track is also an untamable beast.
You
cannot go wrong in picking this CD up direct from the band- or sampling their
wares via bandcamp for a good flavour of what they are about. Ultimately, this
is excellent old school death metal done right- and there are not too many
albums or bands you can say that about these days.
“Immaculate
Massacre”
is available HERE
