Beyond Cops. Beyond God.

Waking The Cadaver. Most metalheads detest this band, and with good reason. Their first demo and album were a sloppy mess of breakdowns, pig squeals and out of time drumming. It seems in the 3 years between the terrible "Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler", Waking The Cadaver realised how bad they sucked and decided to make amends and become a legit brutal death metal band. And what an improvement they made.

Long gone are Don Campan's irritating pig grunts and those "gutturals" that sounded like he was slurping a cappucino, in favor of a real growl that reminds the listener of John Gallagher of Dying Fetus. Yes, that's right. He now sounds like a legit growler, and is no longer a joke amongst extreme vocalists. He still sounds like he's trying a little too hard to be a tough guy, but it's still better than his old vocal styles. Very occassionally he will perform a higher pitched grunt that sounds suspiciously like a pig squeal, but it actually sounds decent as opposed to the irritated BREE BREE SHREDDED WHEAT he was doing before, and they're used very rarely, so it shouldn't bother you if you don't mind pig squeals used in moderation.

The riffs are solid, heavy and will make you wanna bang your head. Yeah, that's right. RIFFS! On a Waking The Cadaver album. Not a repetitive breakdown lasting an entire song. Actual death metal riffs that show some old school death metal influence such as Morbid Angel, with a few breakdowns or "slams", if you prefer, that remind you more of Dying Fetus than Chased Through The Woods By A Rapist. The guitarist even tries his hand at a solo in "Suffering Upon Revenge". While not the best of solos you can at least give credit for trying to include one.

The bass is again inaudible, so I'll move right past that. This guy must be getting sick of being mixed out on every release.

The drummer has perhaps improved the most from the sloppy mess that was their last album. On that album he was so out of time with the rest of the music, it was cringeworthy. Now he's actually performing decent blasts, in time with the rest of the music, as well as throwing in some decent little fills now and again. He's nothing outstanding, but compared to how bad he used to be, he sounds like a maestro.

This still has some of the clichés of deathcore all over it, such as gang shouting like at the end of Reign Supreme, and Campan still can't write lyrics to save his life. Most of these lyrics sound like he wrote them while playing Grand Theft Auto. Additionally, one track named after the band is just 40 seconds of pinch harmonics, a breakdown and a very low gurgle. Quite unnecessary but i'd take an interlude like that over sounds of the band taking bong hits.

Overall, this is a nice little slam/brutal death metal/deathcore album that you'll enjoy if you're a fan of Dying Fetus and/or Despised Icon. Well done, Waking The Cadaver. You've definitely changed for the better. If this band continue to improve like they are doing, I see myself becoming a potential huge fan. I'm already looking forward to their next album.

Highlights: Reign Supreme, Sadistic Tortures, Beyond Cops, Suffering Upon Revenge.