Hailing from the mean streets of Detroit Chop City, Centenary are the latest purveyors of death to find their way into my overflowing inbox, ringing ears, and blackened heart. You may ask, what sets these guys apart from the millions of other death metal bands clogging up the underground today? Well as of this writing, Centenary is the first and only “pure Detroit chainsaw metal” band. They want you to know they’re serious about the chainsaw thing. They’re so serious that two chainsaws grace the logo on the cover of their latest album, Death…The Final Frontier.
The chainsaw aesthetic extends beyond the band’s self proclaimed subgenre and logo, and seeps into the music itself. No matter what form of extreme metal is being explored on Death…The Final Frontier, what remains constant is the HM-2 driven buzzsaw riffs that dominate from beginning to end. Unlike most Swedish death worshippers who come off as forced, trite, and downright unoriginal, Centenary play with a confidence and ease that would fit them comfortably next to Entombed and Dismember. Maybe someone oughta do a DNA check on these guys. Are we sure they’re not really from Gothenburg?
“Entangled in Entrails” kicks the album off in ferocious fashion. The riffs are crusty, the vocals are punky, and it’s all backed by d-beats galore. The raw hardcore of bands like Anti-Cimex and Mob 47 had a major influence on the development of Swedish death metal. These crust-isms reign supreme on this opening rager, as well as the ultra pissed off “Tower of Excarnation”. “Liquefied Rot” and “Strangled by the Night” are more traditional Left Hand Path style affairs, but go well with these punk undertones.
The album takes a turn for the interesting with “Ceaseless Astral Dirge”. This is death/doom Swedish style: rotten, putrid, and covered in maggots. What more could you ask for? On “The Laughing Death”, Centenary continues to pull surprises out of their sleeves with sinister riffs and a chaotic arrangement in the vein of classic black metal. “Malicious Symbiosis” borders on grind, while “Remote Manipulation” and “Facial Dislocation” incorporate slow, groovy mosh riffs to maximum effect. It all comes together on the closing “Slaves from the Grave”, which combines all the aforementioned characteristics into a lethal cocktail of death.
If Death…The Final Frontier were to win an award, it would be “Swedish Death Metal Not Actually from Sweden Album of the Year”. That may sound like a joke, but I’m sure one of the much larger and loftier metal publications is devising such an award as we speak. Centenary gets two thumbs up and a bloodied chainsaw from this amateur. Oh yeah, and the rating…
7 out of 10
Label: CDN Records
Genre: Death Metal
For fans of: Entombed, At the Gates, Dismember