Boiled to Death

I'd like to think I hold a certain amount of respect for bands that sound good without feeling the need to reinvent the wheel. Yeah, groundbreaking bands are always fun, but as long as you take a basic formula and don't fuck it up too badly I'm going to like what you've got going on. Such is my thought process in regards to Shroud of the Heretic's Boiled to Death - it's not really original in any regard but everything about it is executed so solidly that I can't particularly bring myself to care. This whole EP has about as many surprises as a slasher film that takes place in an open, flat field at high noon, but it easily makes up for it by making sure that every piece of it is just plain cool.

Shroud of the Heretic play stripped-down, doomy death metal that plods around in a mid-pace that doesn't ever relent for anything. Oddly enough, the band's adherence to that certain pace for their riffs means that the album is mostly locked into place for most of its running time: quick alternating blasts are sometimes used in favor of the usual slow but catchy rocking beats and upbeat "polka rhythms", but they just sort of float over the other instruments instead of implying any sort of tempo change. The beats per minute aren't the only static element of the EP, either: Boiled to Death has no guitar solos or anything resembling technicality on the part of any of the instruments, it doesn't have any more than five or six riffs within each five-minute song, and it doesn't have much in the way of variance as far as melodies go. What it does have is an absurdly heavy guitar tone that bulldozes everything in its path every time the band churn out a riff on it. Calling it "cavernous" would be an understatement; "recorded at the bottom of a well extending down into the center of the earth" might be a bit more accurate but still not entirely accurate.

The riffs here are basically death metal with the doominess of Autopsy, but the melodies of a classic Finndeath band. Purtenance or Demigod come to mind while listening to this, in that SOTH hover over extremely deep, low and twangy notes for their tremolo riffs. The Autopsy influence shows itself in the slower riffs, which strip away a lot of drum presence in favor of long, sustained sections of dreary and heavy chords. Shroud of the Heretic's realization of those two modes of songwriting isn't particularly notable, but they're faithful enough to the style for their take on it to be worthwhile regardless. They'd pretty much have to be, as this is quite obviously a guitar-oriented release in every sense of the word: even though there's not a single rhythm/lead harmony on the entire half-hour of music, the guitars are loud enough to drown out just about everything else in the music and assert themselves to the front. The vocals aren't particularly present either; not only are they quiet in the release's mix, but they're not very talkative either. Most of the stanzas consist of just one word spoken for each line, and the band sometimes go for extended periods of time without including any vocals at all at times. Still, while they're not the driving force of the album, they're executed well - practically vomited, agonized growls with a bit of an edgy "oomph" to them that just gives them a bit of extra personality.

I guess this'll have to be a rather short review for me, because the band's formula is so simple and rehashed that there just isn't really much to say about it, but Shroud of the Heretic are definitely a good band that make the best of the influences they work with. Hardly essential, but OSDM fans who like their death metal on the more occult side of things will probably get a good kick out of this. Also, the font used for the tracklisting on the back of the CD makes "Womb of Darkness" look like "Bomb oi Dorfness". That's got to somehow factor into your musical selection process, so I felt the need to mention it.