Lure of the Occult

Lure of the Occult was like having some temporal burglar sneak into my basement in 1991, steal all of the tapes in my rapidly expanding death metal collection, then return to his/her hideout in the present, study all of the loot, and record an album which perfectly combines all of the material's strengths. I bet y'all wish you had come up with that particular machination! Granted, what this means is that the Australians' debut is not exactly filled to the gills with innovative songwriting, but I think that's pretty forgivable when the results are this entertaining. I like that I could never pin Backyard Mortuary on aping any one particular band; no, this is Death, Autopsy, Incantation, Morbid Angel, Entombed, Gorguts, Immolation and Obituary rolled into one, mighty, zombified joint and then blown into your face through the mummified breath of ages. In other words: awesome, and while, like myself, you might have missed out on this last year, there's a snazzy new vinyl re-issue coming from Blood Harvest records (out of Sweden) that should give it a well deserved 'second wind'.

Have to admit, from the cover artwork I was expecting some raw, primitive recording of black/death or black/thrash/war metal, so imagine my surprise when it was actually tightly executed old school death metal with a reasonable level of polish to the guitars. Probably the most uncouth and out of control element would be the vocals, which temper an ominous, deep guttural punctuation with loads of reverb and atmosphere, plus a more impish rasping edge that applies some variation and character. The guitars, though, have a very focused, low-end crunch to them that immediately recounts the more slamming sensation you felt from the earliest of 'brutal' death metal ("Beyond the Grave"), but then they'll intersperse all these diabolical Slayer school melodies, or some haunting and possessed tremolo rhythms that frighten me almost as much as the first time I heard the bridge to "Chapel of Ghouls". Despite the fact that much of the riffing integration would feel simplistic to today's death maven who has been exposed to far more technical material, nothing here is so debased or primitive that it feels thoughtlessly calculated. There's a lot of texture and pacing over the course of Backyard Mortuary's debut. Time was spent writing this: and thus, my time is not wasted in listening to it!

Lure of the Occult has everything. Slower, churning grooves in which you can really feel the breadth of the chords as you once could for a band like Obituary on Cause of Death. In a few places, it might even pass for a death/doom hybrid. But then there are the more clinical, taut, accelerated passages which seem like an unholy merger of Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse and Immolation near the dawn of the 90s, with these harrowing and dissonant fields of possibility that feel like a hundred tombs being cracked open at once. The bass guitar has a good, clean tone which ramps up the meat of the rhythm guitars, while the drums can easily spout out an interesting blast or fill or some great, cadence-like structuring to the palm muted grooves (like in "Mutation"). No two tunes sound quite the same, but the vocals really gel them all together, so ghastly and huge and grotesque whether they're mounting the slower, Cyclopean surges of "Deprivation" or the thrashing repulsion of "Macabre Butchery", which is hands down a great tune and one the best singular retro death pieces I've heard lately.

No, it's not all so insanely catchy, nor does it surpass the many albums it owes its own existence to, but it's a great example of how nostalgia doesn't necessarily need to take on the form of some horribly underproduced or cavernous atmosphere (though the vocals fit that bill) to feel appreciably archaic. Death metal bands of that era were generally striving towards better mixes and sounds themselves, and Backyard Mortuary does honor to the realities of the period rather than a skewed perception many younger fans might have. I loved that nothing on this record felt underdeveloped. The leads are well placed and exciting, the rhythms varied up and rarely ineffective, and even the longer numbers like "Mutation" and "Demons Blood" managed to fill out their britches without wearing out their welcome. Ultimately, Lure is quite a good album, and those of you who have enjoyed the quality roots death metal of acts like Nocturnal Torment, Necrovation, Skeletal Remains, Disma, Horrendous (among many others) would do well to sink your fangs into its articulate, engaging flesh.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

The band name, album cover, and logo should indicate without any doubt the kind of toxic onslaught you're dealing with here. Yep, Australia's Backyard Mortuary is another old school death metal band laying fresh bricks upon the tried and true groundwork cultivated over twenty years ago by the genre's greats. In a world where hundreds of similar discs are tucked away in warehouses nationwide never to be heard from ever again (ET-style), it gets continually more difficult to stand out and put forth a genuinely captivating effort. However, if Lure of the Occult is any indication, this band is here to stay while severing some heads in the process.

No, Backyard Mortuary isn't exactly reinventing the wheel here or even breathing life into an already bustling revitalization, but that makes this record no less pummeling. Every song here is bursting at the seams with bludgeoning riffs aged to perfection. The variation in speed keeps it all flowing, never congealing too heavily into a homogeneous mixture of pacing. Sometimes it busts into flurries of straight-laced speed a la Scream Bloody Gore, only to slow to a sinister grind and summon bleak churns of doom greatness. Just see the eight minute "Demon's Blood", whose initial setting of haste erodes into graduated domination. Personally the mid-paced parts just kill, showing the group settle into its best and most memorable rhythms. Listening to the title track, easily my favorite here with its absolutely crushing progressions, is like getting rabbit-punched repeatedly by Mike Tyson wearing brass knuckles, and most of the other songs channel a comparable level of intensity.

In the vocal department, this group couldn't get any better. Chris Archer's voice, which I would describe as a perfect mix of early Chuck Schuldiner and Martin Van Drunen, is basically the pure essence of death metal. His powerful growls simply envelop this album and bring it to new, tortured heights, with little touches like the demonic laughter in "Mutation" only adding to the morbid spectacle. It'd also be amiss not to mention the shocking production quality involved. This is probably the best I've heard any self-released album sound. Each instrument comes through with an appropriate tone of time capsule antiquity, yet the overall product reaches levels of clarity most modern big label groups could only dream of.

There are really no glaring flaws to point out, though a couple of the tracks don't leave as deep of an impression upon the memory as riff monsters like "Demon's Blood" and "Lure of the Occult" do. That's pardonable since this album still creates an awesome web of sounds even when it isn't directly knocking you out. At the end of the day, we have more resolute, old school bloodshed to bask in the glory of, and that's not an offering I'm willing to turn down. Lure of the Occult is one of the better debuts from a year already replete with worthy first efforts Add it to the shopping list along with the newest efforts from Horrendous, Pseudogod, and Undergang, and you'll be good to go until the next ritual arrives.

Written For:
~http://www.metal-observer.com/~
~http://metallicfaithimmortal.blogspot.com/~