Atrocities Five-Way Split

Whoo, five completely unknown brutal death bands! I think I'm probably the only one who actually bought a copy of this.

Devoured:

This remind me primarily of Colombian brutal death with a hint of American edge in some of the more pensive and melodic riffing, overall pretty similar to a band like Animals Killing People. Granted, Devoured are nowhere near as memorable or infectious as that band, but the general style is fairly similar, with hyperspeed, rickety blasting collapsing into more rhythmically technical sections, but with a less spastic, more deliberate American flair. If you've heard bands like Nihil Obstat, this is pretty close. Anyway, while it's a decent aping of the Colombian style, Devoured doesn't really write anything that sticks to the brain, though this is partially a virtue of the rehearsal room production which robs everything of its power and doesn't let the instruments gel in a meaningful way. Then again, what you can hear isn't that exciting, so I'll chalk this one up to mediocrity.

GoldenPyre:

The biggest influence here by far is Cannibal Corpse, roughened around the edges with hints of Vader or dissonant death metal such as Evil Incarnate. Even then, the music just 'feels' like Cannibal Corpse; the arrangement of the riffs and their melodic sense, the way the vocals are implemented, the rhythmic changes, all of it points directly to the Corpsegrinder era of that band. I guess that's all right, but the fact is that GoldenPyre aren't really talented enough to pull off that style. It ends up coming off as a stripped-down and slow-down version of 'Gore Obsessed', and while the music is listenable enough it doesn't really do much more me. Why listen to this when I have seven discs of the real thing available?

Among The Decayed:

I heard this band's full-length a few years back, which was a pretty solid slab of thrash-influenced brutal death, but man is it way better than this bit of early material by the artist. The music is more oldschool and thrashy, with the brutal death influence being minimized. This isn't a problem, but the production is, being excruciatingly thin and grating to the ears. There's not a hint of bass anywhere in the sound which makes Among The Decayed's side borderline unlistenable. The songs are pretty decent for what you can hear from them; thrashy death metal with a definite Cannibal Corpse influence as well as bits of Bay Area thrash and some US brutal death that come together in a pretty professional and engaging way. Shame about the production; if this had a better sound, it probably could have been one of the best sides on this release.

Terrordrome:

Hands down the best side of this split comes from Greek brutal deathers Terrordrome, who play a Disgorge-influenced style of US brutal death. The Greek brutal death scene has never really been my thing, typically being rather sloppy, poorly produced, and rushed-sounding, but Terrordrome is the opposite of all that. The production is very clear and heavy and the technical playing is spot on. The songwriting, though, is what makes this a winner: fairly technical and completely savage brutal death with just a hint of slam from time to time, the band expands on the 'never stop changing' style of bands like Brodequin and masters it completely. I really need to track down the 2008 full-length by these guys; it's too good to ignore.

Digging Up:

And we finally get to the single to date released track by Digging Up. This is pretty unfortunate because 'Savouring Veronica In My Vein' could be colloquially described as 'sick as fuck', with a great fusion of grooving US brutal death and a more chaotic and technical Czech style ala a non-cyber Four Seats For Invalides. The compositions alternate between fast, technical tremolo riffs and a more rhythmic Czech or American slam style, making for a track that's fun, varied, and quite listenable due to the very good production. It really sucks these guys haven't done anything else because this is easily the single best, catchiest song on the release. Just my luck that the best band never does anything with their talent.

Overall:

Well, two out of five sides are worthwhile, which isn't a great ratio, but the other three are mostly inoffensive, so I guess I can tentatively recommend this to underground death metal fans... if no one else. You'd probably be better off just finding the Terrordrome and Digging Up tracks and ignoring the CD, but whatever, it fills a weird spot in one's collection I suppose.