Lynching the Lunacy

Michigan death metal band Animus Stench presents an ensemble of unapologetically vicious death metal with its 2019 debut full-length, Lynching the Lunacy. In just 9 tracks with a total running time of slightly over 39 minutes, Jeremy Commee, the mastermind behind Animus Stench, successfully manages to embody all of the characteristics that makes for a great death metal album with his music. Some of those characteristics include but are not limited to speed, brutality, pinches of chugging, tempo changes, and gnarly growls. Those who worship old school death metal legends such as Deicide and Cannibal Corpse should give this album a listen as soon as possible.

Lynching the Lunacy is introduced with a short organ piece titled "I. Peperit, II. Exitium" that sounds like something Anton LaVey would've performed during a service at his infamous satanic church. It has a somewhat somber, somewhat foreboding nature to it, which perfectly preps the listener for the death metal mayhem that ensues right after. The next 4 tracks follow a pattern of old school style death metal riffing at various paces while still remaining in the fast range. The riffs are comprised mostly of tremolo picking and gallop picking with some moments of downpicking also included. "Rotting Ways of Life" slows things down an puts more of an emphasis on the downpicking and tremolo picking to create a grizzly kind of brutality. The 2 tracks following that return to the previous pattern. The album is concluded with an approach similar to that of "Rotting Ways of Life" as exemplified by "The Seven Years".

In terms of vocals, Jeremy's main approach is a throaty growl in between the lines of a mid-range and a low growl. There are occasional high screams thrown in and also some backing vocals. The backing vocals are layered in a manner similar to those heard on Deicide's self titled debut album: one vocal track with a raspy shriek layered over a vocal track with a growl or vice versa. The guitar work is solid. As I mentioned, the trio of tremolo picking, gallop picking, and downpicking are the riffs' backbone. The typical ascending & descending death metal guitar scales are employed. Chugging is used during certain periods of slower speeds to veer into the brutal side of death metal. Some dissonant riffing is present in a few tracks. There are not many guitar solos on Lynching the Lunacy, but Jeremy compensates for that by giving the spotlight to the bass guitar on multiple occasions.

The production on this album has noticeable flaws along with its strengths. Its strengths lie within the bass and programmed drums. They sound fantastic. The drums sound clear, have adequate reverb applied to them, and were just programmed very well to match the atmosphere of each track. The bass guitar has a fat, meaty sound that sounds great in the moments where the tone is clean and when it's overdriven. Death metal is a subgenre of metal where rhythm and percussion are of the essence, so it is crucial that the bass and drums sound just right.

The weaknesses reside within the production, mixing, and mastering. The mixing/mastering job seems very inconsistent throughout the entirety of Lynching the Lunacy. It sounds as if each track has its EQ dialed differently, regardless of how little it may vary, rather than there being a set-in-stone standard for all 9 tracks. The vocals in some moments either seem a bit buried or lack reverb. Both pose a risk of the vocals being perceived as stale by some listeners. The dynamics of the guitars differ from each track with some sounding more muddy than others. The guitar tone sounds weak in some areas, others not so much. There are a few periods of hyper-fast speeds where the guitar notes are nearly rendered undecipherable.

Animus Stench's 2019 debut full-length, Lynching the Lunacy, is a worthy, entertaining listen for death metal enthusiasts. Even though it has its flaws due to Jeremy still having much to learn in terms of the whole audio engineering process when this album was recorded, the album is not bad by any means. Especially for it being a first. The band's releases to follow this one address and fix certain weaknesses while also building upon its strengths. Favorite tracks: Driving Nails into Flesh, Lynching the Lunacy, and Rotting Ways of Life.