Unleashing the Slugathron

Holy brutal shit, where did this come from?! Finland unleashes a fucking load of old-school blasphemous brutal death metal on us from out of virtually nowhere. I'd no idea this band existed, were it not for Agonia Records and their nice marketing. The other thing that made me want to check this out is that they're a DM band on a relatively BM-based label, which usually ends up brilliant (Drawn & Quartered, anyone?). Anyways, this is five-thousand pounds of brutal, bottom end-heavy, pounding death metal.

What drew me in here, upon first listen were the vocals. They're relatively generic, but when coupled with some screechy backup vocals, they become sinister in tone. This is a very good aspect of the band. Technical riffs can be heard all the time, and the riffs are nice and varied as they should be. The band is basically midpaced. They never go into "ULTRA BLASTBLASTBLAST" sections, and they keep the tempo in the middle a bit. That's not to say that they don't have blasts, though. Also some rather neat groove parts, such as the beginning of Bleed For Me.

The bass on this release is absolutely crushing. Like any good death metal album, this album understands the importance of low end. For the most part, it's a rhythm instrument, never really taking the reigns, but it's very powerful in its position. Very solid performance.

This isn't a particularly laborious listen, so I don't have to go into huge metaphorical tangents and compare them to bulldozers or heavy machinery or anything silly like that. All I really have to say is that if you like old-school death metal (even atmospheric death metal fans will find something in this; the guitar tone is very interesting), GET THIS ALBUM.