Life & Death

"Life & death" is the debut album by Ambrazura, originally released in 2002, but re-released in 2007. I had never heard of them previous to receiving a promo pack from Tunes of Torture, and looking through the booklet I really don’t know what to think. There are three guys in the band; one looks like he might be about 25 years old, one maybe 45, and the third dude looks like he’s 70. That’s quite an age-span. And their nicknames are Demon, Hammer and Terrible. Hehe… But the music’s really what’s important, not who’s in the band and what they’re called.

What these Russians offer here is a huge dose of technical death metal. At a first glance it seems like a groove-based Six Feet Under-like style, but after a more in-depth listen I find that they blend in a lot more influences. There’s some old school present, getting me thinking of Dismember, but also taking on some more classic rock á la AC/DC. They sure do love to show off with some technical guitar work, and the vocals are represented by a deep, burly voice.

Unfortunately everything they have going for them falls flat due to the horrible sound. The production’s really just terrible. For "Light & darkness" (which also happens to be the best track on here) it sounds as though they’ve just paused the music, added some guitars, and pressed play again. I mean, it really sounds crappy. And the drums are really rigid in the fast parts, with a hi-hat that sounds taken from some electronic program. But otherwise the track presents some really groovy riffing. A song that really stands out is "Grand", which sounds like a metalized country tune at times.

The overall work might be a bit too guitar centered for my taste, but there are some cool tracks, no doubt about it.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net