Into Never Shall

Opening the record with eerie samples and classic horror style piano, the old school feel of this record is off to a great start before we see a note of death metal. 80s style synths up the ante of retro rites before HM-2 guitars draw in with a doom-fuelled riff. With drums and bass kicking in the rhythmic foundation to this crawling riff, the immediately noticeable improvement in atmosphere from the EP is a welcome upgrade. The thunderous roar of Swedish death metal worship really kicks in after the first track as roaring vocals dive into an onslaught of ferocious drums and dastardly riffs with pure 90s fire burning at the core. The malicious groove of the riffs has plenty of melody and aggression balanced in the glorious Stockholm manner that meets the d-beat driven attack perfectly. The cleaner bass punches through the mix to give it a bottomless depths while the vitriolic snarling vocals tie all of this together. The production feels much more monstrous than ever before while the songwriting is superb in conveying their old school destruction. Expunged are back and better than ever.

Charging forward, the unrelenting obliteration of morbidity does not show remorse. Invoking the venomous punk-tinged death metal spirit of the 90s and giving us a remarkably genuine and fearsome display of how this sound is just as powerful as it was all those years ago, that is a mission that Expunged have absolutely fulfilled. While there may be a plethora of bands doing this style and doing it extremely well, that is not a reason for complaint as far as I am concerned. Expunged may not be reinventing the wheel but they spin it at violence inducing speed throughout the record with the influence of their Swedish predecessors worn proudly on their sleeves. Solos are sporadically used by have a tasteful feel to them that accentuates the brutality nicely without becoming a detraction while showcasing some skilful chops. This record is definitely more rhythm driven, as is typically the case with this type of death metal. Though the grooves give the songs a certainly catchy hook, there is plenty of barbarity to ensure this isn’t too easy to listen to, giving us some savagery of epic proportions while always being rooted in that fantastic stomp. This is a cut of total chainsaw fuelled death metal brilliance that hits hard with a mighty force and leaves triumphant.

Unarguably the strongest work from Expunged thus far, a monolithic effort of death metal that invokes the old school days beautifully while executing it with passion and stoic skills. The EP was a really cool one, now we see the band has developed their ability to string that atmosphere together to give us a full opus of diabolic death metal majesty.

Written for www.nattskog.wordpress.com