Charnel Deity

Impaler are a little-known UK death metal act whose debut (and only) LP Charnel Deity was released (in it's original version) in 1991 - arguably the single greatest year in the history of death metal. Anything released that year that can be regarded as some kind of "death metal" pretty much immediately peaks the interest of a OSDM freak like yours truly, so I just had to hunt down a copy of this fairly rare British death metal relic. Thankfully, this is a case where judging a book by it's cover (or release date, or other superficial factor) has does some good, because Charnel Deity is quite the good album indeed. While no wheels were reinvented in the making of this album, it's a quality slab of classic death metal and you'd have to be a total goober to ask for more.

The band's approach is pretty straight-forward and meat-and-potatoes, taking influence from iconic, forever classic albums like Leprosy, Consuming Impulse, and Slowly We Rot (perhaps a little Severed Survival too) and in terms of the UK scene, leaning closer to bands like Cancer or perhaps Necrosanct, though some Bolt Thrower-esque grooves can be discerned beneath the album's Floridian veneer in tracks like "Accursed Domain" or "Astral Corpse". There are plenty of fast moments too, the riffs are really quite nasty when they need to be ("Total Carnage" is freakin' lethal! I'm sure the mosh pit went crazy when they played this one back in the day) and blast beats are implemented surprisingly frequently, but tastefully. The vocals of "Edd" are quite good too, he sounds a tad like Chuck Schuldiner, but a bit deeper and more guttural. It's a familiar, but well-executed style. Shame this guy didn't lend his rotten pipes to any bands after Impaler ended! The songwriting is mature and impressive, as mentioned above it's fairly "slow" music but the songs have enough twists and turns that it never gets boring. It's nothing we haven't heard before (perhaps literally, I swear the opening riff of "Engulfed" is an old school Obituary riff but can never put my finger on what exactly?) but it's executed with style and passion.

The biggest problem with Charnel Deity really lies in it's production. Not exactly a bad sound - no Stillborn-esque travesty by any means, but it doesn't quite deliver the proper "punch" I'd argue the music needs. It actually feels a bit stiff and cold compared to say, the classic Morrisound or Sunlight material. Of course, Paul Johnston isn't exactly as legendary as Scott Burns or Tomas Skogsberg, but his name's attached some decent sounding albums (Transcend the Rubicon, ...Hope Finally Died, ...In Pains, etc.) and unfortunately Charnel Deity isn't really among them. While the riffs and actual composition is there, something about the production just makes it feel a tad listless to me. The guitar tone isn't very good either, and I can see many people having a problem with it but I guess it has a bit of an "unpolished" feel that arguably works to the album's benefit, intentional or not (and it sounds better for the faster, thrashier moments like the aforementioned "Total Carnage"). Not a big fan of the kick drum either, a bit too loud and clicky for my liking but that's nitpicking.

In the end, you can't go wrong to at least check this out if you're interested in lesser-known death metal acts of the Floridian persuasion - but of course, not from Florida. Just don't go into this expecting a "forgotten classic" as many seem to do with these kinds of albums. This is just another solid slab of good ol' quality, classic-style death metal, like momma used to make, that got lost in the shuffle over the years...if you wouldn't mind having that sound rot in your earholes, don't hesitate to hunt a copy down (if you can find one).