Unleashing the Slugathron

Death metal that worships at the altar of the old school is nothing new. Plenty of metalheads and musicians alike appreciate the straightforward aggression that the earliest death metal bands conveyed so well. And really, how can they be blamed? There's just something magical about those classic death metal bands' collective ability to push the limits of thrash beyond their breaking point to create a wholly unholy new beast. Most of my favorite death metal albums were birthed during the golden age of death, a time when, strangely enough, the genre managed to be incredibly diverse yet unexpectedly unified under the gory banner of death metal. Slugathor, like an uncountable sea of their contemporaries, were so fascinated and captivated by the old school that they were compelled to throw their disparate-yet-related influences into a blender and hope for the best.

If there's one thread common to the majority of old school death metal bands (or at least the ones that were any good), it's the emphasis placed on the riff. Few death metal albums have stood the test of time without having a hell of a lot of great riffs to serve as the foundation upon which the music is built. The best of the newer bands that play in the old-school worshipping style recognize this. A good many of them write damn good riffs and glue them together into a cohesive song. Toss in some proper growls and competent drumming and you have yourself a thoroughly enjoyable death metal album. Ever listen to a newer "old school" death metal album, have yourself a good headbanging session through the album's duration and then smile and nod when the whole thing's over and say to yourself, "yep, that's death metal"? Call me easy to please but I get a lot of enjoyment out of albums like that. Slugathor, however, are that rare band that transcends mere adequacy, as great as that may be. Their influences aren't hard to pin down; mix a few parts Bolt Thrower with some Incantation and a sprinkling of Demigod and a pinch of blackened goodness and you're not far off the mark. Describing them as such, though, is like saying that the best Philly cheesesteak you've ever had was simply steak and Cheez-whiz (get out of here with that pussy provolone crap) on an Italian roll with some fried onions. The whole is absolutely more than the sum of its parts in both cases.

As I stated before, the key ingredient on an album like this is the riffing and Slugathor have imported the finest gourmet guitar meat for their debut. There's absolutely nothing pretty or fancy about it; the guitars spend about 70% of the album's running time in a glorious downtuned flurry of thrashy, punky goodness. The guitar tone is somewhere between War Master and Mortal Throne of Nazarene but unfortunately the production doesn't give quite enough weight to the guitars' low end riffs. It feels like the bass knobs are just a little too high and the mids just a little too scooped for my tastes. Mind you, these low-end riffs still hit like a chugging freight train but when the guitars switch to the higher tremolo patterns they cut through the mix much more effectively. A few times those lower-pitched riffs speed up and veer sort of into early Carcass style grind territory but more often they're a deal more articulate than that. Lead guitar, you ask? Well, not really. There are some dive bombs here and there but in general this isn't the type of album to let melodic lead guitar get in the way of the pummeling rhythms any more than it has to. Likewise, you shouldn't expect (or even want, really) the bass to do more than follow the riff on this monster. I'm sure it does a great deal to fatten up that bottom end but if it ventured out on its own all it would do is trip over the guitars and muddy everything up. There are some fantastic riffs on this album; just see how the tremolo lines transform into pounding brutality near the end of "Suffering Endlessly" or witness the groovy swagger of the opening riff on "Phenomenon of Doom."

One of my favorite things about Slugathor, and something they thankfully retained throughout their too-brief stint, is their vocal style, which is on full display here on Unleashing the Slugathron. The lead vocals are a very deep growling style (Rottrevore make a good benchmark) and aren't all that varied themselves but are backed throughout much of the record by a throat-shredding blackened howl. I could die a happier man if those backing vocals were higher in the mix but I'll take what I can get while I'm still alive. While not too far removed from the concept of what I've heard called "demon vocals" (the type where vocals are doubled using a pitchshifter to juxtapose growls and shrieks, (ab)used often by Glen Benton for example), the result is wholly different and, to my ears, miles more effective and enjoyable.

The drumming is definitely a highlight. Immu really knows exactly when to pour on the blasts (not lighting fast gravity blasts, mind, but the more mid-paced variety) and when to hold back. The fills come often enough but are varied enough to never wear out their welcome. My only complaint is that the bass drums sort of get lost in that massively bassy mix. The only obvious "remedy" would be to up the "clicky" factor to make them more audible and if there's anything that bugs me more than not-loud-enough bass drums, it's clicky, obnoxious sounding ones so I'll let that slide. Evidence enough of Immu's talents can be found during the opening of "Fabric of the Multiverse." Sure, you could "tech" that drum line up a good deal but there's really no need to. That pattern alone is proof that it's possible to ooze character while staying within the bounds of relative simplicity.

The real magic of this album (and Slugathor in general, for that matter) is how the band blends the flawless performances of these various elements together and injects the whole affair chock full of atmosphere so dense you could cut it with a knife. The way that meaty guitar tone combines with the band's downright awesome dual-vocal approach conveys the "decaying zombies shuffling through a graveyard" aesthetic better than any of their contemporaries. If you appreciate a good death metal riff anywhere near as much as I do, you're going to love this album. The amount of conviction these guys have for making their music pushes Slugathor's music above and beyond the realm of nostalgia or even respectful worship of their influences. To top it all off, there's good news for anyone listening to this record: Slugathor not only managed to create something unique and special here, they managed to grab onto that creative spark with both hands and refine it further on each subsequent release. While it's abundantly clear on Unleashing the Slugathron that these musicians get death metal, they'd go on to prove on Circle of Death and swansong Echoes from Beneath that they have unique voices and an all-too-uncommon knack for turning our favorite death metal ingredients into something much more than just "yep, that's death metal."