Death metal week rages on here at Defenders of the Faith! Well, I didn’t intend for it to be “death metal week”. It just so happens the latest string of releases that caught my interest delve into the world of blastbeats, guttural vocals, and gory tales of death and insanity. On Monday we checked out some new death metal, yesterday we checked out some old death metal, and today we check out some brand spanking new death metal straight out of Joliet, Illinois (an hour outside of Chicago for you non-Illinoisians).
Granulated is the brand new “bedroom project” from the demented mind behind Molder, Aaren Pantke. I put “bedroom project” in quotations because for a project labeled as such, it sounds more professional than a good percentage of the so called “professional” death metal bands out there today. That one guy screwing around in his bedroom can crank out more memorable riffs in a 4 song demo than the entire 20 Buck Spin roster is both impressive and sad. Impressive if you’re Pantke, sad if you’re 20 Buck Spin.
Where as Molder specializes in thrashy death metal à la Scream Bloody Gore and Severed Survival, Granulated is more focused on delivering some devastatingly heavy riffs. With tempos ranging somewhere between that slow creepy crawl and mid paced d-beats, I can’t help but notice a tinge of Chicago gods Cianide, especially on “Lead Encased in Heads” (extra brownie points for sampling Observe and Report). What both Molder and Granulated have in common is dealing in crushing old school death that sounds more like it was made 30 years ago than today. And I mean that in the most complimentary way.
My choice cut is “Granulate”. The riffs and structure to this one scream early Cannibal Corpse. Considering CC has been putting out the same album for quite some time and Chris Barnes has become the laughing stock of the metal meme community (“Come getcher carrrrr!!!”), it’s safe to say neither camps will drop a track of this caliber anytime soon.
All four of these tracks rip and I hope it’s not the last we hear of Granulated. Considering a physical release of this demo is being handled by Headsplit Records (cassette) and Goatthrone Records (CD), part of me feels like it isn’t. Another part of me feels Pantke will just hit us with some other creative vehicle before the year is finished. Whatever the case may be, this is a dude who can do no wrong!
7 out of 10
Label: Independent
Genre: Death Metal
For fans of: Cianide, Impetigo, Cannibal Corpse