Awakening

I do love going into an album blind! Having never heard a peep from Germany's Macabre Demise, I was more than excited at the prospect of some vicious death/thrash in the vein of Solstice or Demolition Hammer. This was due to the brilliant, almost Repka-esque, artwork which graces the CD. However, I was pleasantly shocked at the brutality of the music that oozes from this disc, unrefined though it may be. Macabre Demise play a blend of groove-induced brutal death metal to have fans windmilling and slam-dancing in equal measure. The one-man outfit, spearheaded by instrumentalist extraordinaire Andreas Rieger, seems to carry more gravitas than his other projects - this being M.D.'s third full-length album. Awakening, despite its generic title, screws with the brutal death metal genre in a fun way, and is too brief to ever become boring.

After the gazillionth pointless intro track of 2020 (seriously, I love these kinds of things usually but there are far too many that do literally nothing!), the opening title-track hits the listener square in the face with a hefty punch. That initial riff is the kind of deep groove that sums up M.D. - the off-kilter cymbal rhythm showing that there's more to this act than thuggy one-note breakdowns. Andreas shows off his penchant for writing surprisingly catchy vocal patterns (a must, in my opinion, if you are to remain relevant in the brutal death metal community) almost immediately, then hits a peak on the energetic follow-up track "Mirror". Part of the joy of this sub-genre is the mix of relentlessly explosive blast-beats with slower hulking grooves - a trait which is fully explored on the album's single "Corpseball". Containing a great, bouncy chorus which screws with the tempo-changes, and breaking our backs with a huge one-string groove about two minutes in, it's surely one of the highlights of the disc.

Awakening is a fun romp. No, this is not exactly refined material, but Andreas sounds like he's having a whale of a time recording this monster, and therefore you should meet his enthusiasm upon listening. I can't say it fails in that department. I often find myself giving in to the sheer childish joy of headbanging to such groovy beasts as "Slush Brains". However, Macabre Demise make sure to keep my attention and perk my eyebrows with the occasional surprise, such as the doom-laden "Darkness". This track funnels the chaotic death/grind maelstrom into a creepy, menacing crawl and is well-positioned at the center of the LP. I will say, if you let your attention drift, this album can become a tedious piece of background noise as it doesn't exactly play with textural variations. Keep your focus, enjoy the constant riff changes and roar along with infectious refrains like "Gore & Guts".

The whole affair might be brief enough to not outstay its welcome, but the occasional track can drag on past its point of interest. "Prelude To Kill" is a great batch of riffs, and sees Andreas stretch his vocal range more than on the rest of the album, but it stretches past the four-minute mark and pulls back the overall momentum. "Disturbia", too, seems to err on the side of 'forgettable' - a shame for the album's climax. Negativity aside, this is a great, solid chunk of brutal death/grind which will doubtlessly please all fans of the sub-genre, and has put Macabre Demise on my watchlist. Oh, and that bouncy chug 28 seconds into "Chamber Of Pain"? Worth the price of the CD alone!

7.5/10 - Would awaken again.