Pereat Mundus

Modern deathcore is very hit or miss for me. Once I heard that the Mental Cruelty, a band from Germany that combined downtempo deathcore and slam I was genuinely interested with the hype around these guys. I enjoyed the latest single they put out with Daniel Burris from Gamma Sector, so I thought I would give their debut EP a listen. To say the least it was good, but very forgettable. I just think the songwriting on the record was very lack luster in the way of being memorable. When is comes to brutality standards I guess you could say it was good. Well in this case I am not interested in brutality, I want good songwriting. In this case it does have some good sections that I could enjoy and be able to get down too. Just none that I would really remember.

The guitars on the album have a few decent riffs here and there. It is sadly mostly chugging which I find most modern deathcore bands have fallen victim too. It works with the rest of the EP in the way of really wanting the listener pumped. Which seems to be a redeeming quality in this case. While listening I do enjoy the chugs in the way that I would like to get really hyped up and feel it is brutal. I am still just really wanting a great riff throughout the album, while keeping the hype train up with it. I find a good riff can get me more in a mood than chugs can. It is all about how you really want your listener to feel while making the album. I just think this band was focusing on being more brutal than having good song writing structure, which they manage to still get the point across in a good way. Although I find it forgettable.

The drums on this record sound very programmed, but in a somewhat good way. They use the programming very sparingly and don't go over the top like Infant Annihilator. It fits the production sound and in this case if they were to have used actual drums I doubt it would have fit as well in the mix. Luckily, these dudes didn't program to where it was using blast beats all the fucking time like a ton of modern deathcore bands. The drum patterns are very realistic and seem easy to play when a real drummer takes the mantle for this group. Not over technical, but not too slow and boring to be bored in conclusion.

The vocals on the record are monotone, and not in a bad sense either. I do find a lot of vocalists that are monotone to be very good and powerful. So it is nice to hear an EP where the vocalist has a range fetish and uses twenty different types of vocals. Although I will say these low gutturals this vocalist has going on do seem to get old pretty fast. He does do some other types here and there and I really hope he does more mids on further releases. He sounds very monstrous and can hold these notes very well, he is a damn good vocalist. I just think it gets old fast.

Overall I say this is a solid start for this band, and by no means am I hating on the band. I feel if they were focusing on taking more brutal death metal riffs in the music that it would make the music seem a lot more mature in a sense. These guys do have a solid start with enough hype to go on to make more music, I just hope they find a more "mature" sound in this genre. It just seemed very lack luster. I will support these dudes in their future musical endeavors and hell I might even buy a shirt to make up for this harsh review. It may seem a little hypocritical to buy a shirt but I just want these guys to know if they are reading this that I just want them to better themselves and they still have me as a supporter.