Schlachtmusik

Despite the lack of a label and a distributor, Ictus Mortis still manages to cut out an awesome demo. When “Schlachtmusik” ended up in my player I wasn’t expecting much. The band has been around since 2002, this is their first demo, and they have yet to sign to any kind of label. My hopes were not high. I was expecting a gritty and poorly produced set of songs with odd mixing. I was completely wrong.

What I did have on my hands with “Schlachtmusik” was a matured and well crafted demo that is better suited with an EP as its marking. The production isn’t perfect by any means, but the songs sound better than many signed bands. The writing is catchy, unique, and overall expertly written.

Ictus Mortis play a style I like to refer to as Powered Death Metal. Powered Death Metal is a mix of Death Metal and Power Metal styles that, if blended properly, create a beautiful combination of melody and brutality. Right away (after an overly long and somewhat random intro) one is going to notice that the band has a very heavy focus on the keyboard melodies in the music. In fact, many times the keys overpower the guitar melodies and drown them out. The guitars and drums have a more distinguished rhythm to them to counteract most of the keys. The guitars play a lot of dueling leads and rhythms with plenty of tasty solos that intertwine with the key melodies that craft some expert song structures.

An interesting aspect of the album is that many of the vocals are layered nicely with different approaches. There is a baritone singer that might overlay a guttural roar followed up with a shrill shriek that would have Thrash fans drooling. The vocals are combined well and distributed throughout the music without detracting too much from the overall song value.

At times the album is still mixed off center, with certain instruments pulling a little too much attention (the keyboards for the most part) and the album isn’t going to pull a lot of international attention because all the lyrics are written in German. But the music is well crafted and performed. It may not be a perfect album but this is a great start for some developing musicians.

Songs to check out: “Brennende Brücke”, “Sklavin”, “Wintersee.”