There’s no shortage of classic styles being reimagined in today’s OSDM revival. Whether how good or bad they’re reimagined is up to you. Some walk the left hand path paved by Entombed: a path filled with HM-2 overload and questionable fashion choices. Others drift into the interstellar intricacies of Timeghoul tech death…only to ignore the unique qualities that made Timeghoul great by focusing on senseless shredding. And if you’re Cemetery Filth, you bow at the altars of madness that is the Florida sound. If you’re not Cemetery Filth, don’t quit your day job. These freaks have assumed dominion on their debut full length, Dominion.
While Dominion is their debut album, Cemetery Filth are no rookies to the death metal scene. They’ve been at it since 2014 when they released their great but all too short EP, Screams From the Catacombs. Six years, a handful of split appearances, and a few personnel changes later, the vision of founders/guitarists Matt Kilpatrick and Ryan Guinn has been fully realized. Joining them on Dominion is bassist Devin Kelley and drummer extraordinaire, Chris McDonald.
What we have here are 9 songs that if you didn’t tell me who did them, I would’ve guessed this was Morbid Angel in their prime. Dominion sounds less like a rehash and more like a relic from death metal’s glory days. What’s even more impressive than the songs themselves is Cemetery Filth’s ability to flawlessly execute them. They switch between tempos at a rate that’s bound to separate the amateurs from the pros.
Every song is a display of deadly force. The riffs range from the unorthodox (“Subduction”) to the unforgiving (“Aeons in Dis”). “Exhumed Visions” is tinged with touches of thrash and topped with an Azagthothian guitar solo reminiscent of a hellbound soul’s wails. “Churning of the Shallows” opens with a cold, crushing riff, thrashes it up, and then hits hard with the best breakdown you’ll hear all year.
All of this builds up to the album’s centerpiece, the title track. It’s prefaced by the ominous acoustic intro, “From Euphonic Crypts”. After this calm before the storm, it’s headfirst on a death metal rollercoaster ride. All of the elements displayed throughout the course of the album combine to create a cacophony of chaos. Doom, thrash, prog, and death infuses for full frying of the frontal cortex. This lasts about six minutes until…SPLAT. Remember those anvils that randomly fell from the sky on Looney Tunes? The riff that closes out “Dominion” is the musical equivalent to that. It’s so damn good, Cemetery Filth sticks with it for the last two minutes of the album.
Cemetery Filth is one of the few death metal bands today that makes me excited for the future. Newcomers should take note, as well as veterans who fell victim to stale riffs and lazy songwriting: This is how it’s done. The filth is strong with this one.
8 out of 10
Label: Unspeakable Axe Records
Genre: Death Metal
For fans of: Morbid Angel, Death, Autopsy