Having been on a complete traditional metal/hard rock kick for weeks now, it’s about time I rage into the weekend with a good ol’ fashioned (and emphasis on “ol’ fashioned”) death metal album. As I’m sure you all know by now, I’m a sucker for any death metal that sounds like it could’ve been released between 1985 and 1993, hence my love for Molder, Cemetery Filth, Obscene, and various other newer bands who capture this classic spirit. Mind you, it’s one thing to merely ape the gods of yesteryear. It’s another to build upon their template and create something new, which is something all these bands have done.
One band I’ll be sure to add to this list after today is Ascended Dead. Despite forming back in 2011, their latest album, Evenfall of the Apocalypse, is my introduction these San Diego based maniacs. In all truthfulness, it was an old school case of going off the name/album art alone. Whereas other death metal bands go for the jugular with grizzly album art, the cover of Evenfall caught my eye for its minimalist, black and white approach, as if I was staring down into some lost portal to the underworld. Furthermore, besides being a hell of a tongue twister (say “Ascended Dead” five times fast), the band’s name gives off that primitive, late 80s demo vibe.
While one shouldn’t always judge a band off their name/cover (imagine how many were tricked into believing Molly Hatchet was an epic metal band), in this case, I’m glad to say I was spot on. Evenfall is the most bestial death metal album I’ve heard all year thus far. The riffing and arrangements recall Necrovore, Possessed, and the earliest days of Morbid Angel, especially on cuts like the ripping “Abhorrent Manifestation”, unhinged “Nexus of the Black Flame”, and infernal “Bestial Vengeance”. There’s also a trippy, deranged, psychedelic dissonance infused on songs like “Ungodly Death” and “Tantum Bellum”, further adding confusion to the chaos.
The incorporation of blast beats, borderline tremolo riffing, and a production characteristic of Sarcófago’s INRI would have some labeling this a “black/death metal” album. Granted, some songs are more blackened than others, specifically the epic title track that brings this album to a close. However, even at it’s darkest, Evenfall feels like a pure death metal album, albeit extremely obscure and otherworldly. Any doubts of their full blown DM credibility is squashed on the pummeling slabs of Immolation worship that are “Inverted Ascension” and “The Curse / Enveloped in Thorns”, as well as the ripping death/thrash from hell of “Visceral Strike”.
Ascended Dead is not your average, everyday death metal band, and let’s be grateful for that. Here is a band who prides themselves on being anything but orthodox, regardless of what anybody else thinks, whether it be positive or negative. Evenfall is a relentless display of death metal that is wild, crazed, and most importantly, deadly. Those who prefer their death metal on the arcane and eerie side will be thrilled to add this to their collection.
8 out of 10
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Genre: Death Metal
For fans of: Necrovore, Morbid Angel, Immolation