Hymns of Ruthless Pestilence

To tell you people frankly, I am not a big fan of brutal death metal bands and brutal death metal music that utilizes loads of groove slams and uber-guttural vocal delivery. But I make exceptions occasionally, especially when the music that the band presents on their offering material has that punch and decency that is entertaining and acceptable to my ears. Nekroholocaust, a band hailing from my home country, the Philippines, is one of those brutal death metal bands that I can stand listening to without getting annoyed by the clichéd groove riffs, slams, and breakdowns.

“Hymns of Ruthless Pestilence” is the debut studio album of this Bacolod-based Filipino brutal death metal trio after 8 years of demo and split releases. The first thing that the listeners will notice about this record is the primitive nature of the instruments in the album, which gives the record a very ferocious demeanor. Yes, the crunchiness of the riffs can be heard and even highlighted on numerous occasions in the album, but the flat-sounding drums can bring inconvenience sometimes. The production is to blame for this matter. If the drums would’ve been mixed better, I would’ve given this release a higher rating.

Chunky tone and beefy riffs are present, as expected from a band playing under the genre. And though originality and diverseness are not to be found in the offering, the grooves and slams aren’t overly used, which makes the overall result decent and non-irritating to the ears. The riffs that are crafted and presented here invoke that feeling of being tortured and crushed to demise as the guttural vocals spew out incomprehensible growling that sounds like a morbid beast had arisen from the depths of hell to bring havoc to all humankind.

Bass guitar is pretty much audible in the mix, as its low rumble compliments the whole sadistic and murderous nature of the offering, and it makes the whole record much heavier. And though the setback on the flat-sounding drum section is pretty lucid, we can still hear some obvious presence of double bass drum and gravity blasts that feature faster blast beating, which subsidizes the faster slams and grooves in a manner and in a way that could not be better. It’s really quite disappointing that the snare sound does not stand out and the resonance is despondent, because if the production did a good job with the drum part as they did with everything else on the album, the drums would have done far more and it would have driven the music much further.

All in all, “Hymns of Ruthless Pestilence” is a decent, brutal death metal offering that connoisseurs of the said genre will enjoy. I dig that Nekroholocaust did not overwork the utilizing of slams and grooves on this album. It shows that the band, unlike most brutal death metal acts appearing these days, well understands that the overplaying of grooves and slams is unnecessary and will only destroy the whole outcome of a material. Perhaps a more improved production on the drums in future records would make their releases better than they already are. The offering is good, but the band could have done better.