After Swedish Death Metal, my favorite kind of death metal is that burly, chunky blackened death metal,. Big beefy riffs, commanding deep vocals, and a pretty strong militant vibe. It’s a sound Behemoth perfected in the mid 00s, (with Zos Kia Cultus being the arguable apex of the style) and recently bands like Poland’s Hate, France’s Svart Crown, Italy’s ADE, America’s own Blood of the Wolf , Bethledeign and Hate Eternal, and the UKs Sathamel.
Enter Norway’s Nexorum, and their debut album, Death Unchained, a damned fine entry into the blackened death metal genre, plying the style with confidence and some solid song writing to make it a pretty much perfect example of the style.
Death Unchained isn’t doing anything particularly new or special, but with members of Keep of Kalessin, Khonsu Chton and Vercodious, (but somehow the band still isn’t listed at Metal Archives), you get a veteran lineup staying in their lane and delivering some killer blistering riffs, backed by a thick, robust production and commanding, authoritative vocals.
Head straight for standout tracks like “Great Horned King”, with its killer riff at about 2:55 in, hammering “Antediluvian Purification” and blistering “The Luciferian Descent”. And as a genre staple you some of those slower, blood pumping, war mongering, marching riffs heard on the likes of “Retribution”, “Cataclysmic Rebirth”, “Diaboli Stragis”, closer “Murderer” and the excellent, pummeling title track which does both with outstanding results.
Death Unchained was a pleasant surprise after blindly checking it out amid the 100s of promos we get a month, and they certainly will get my money for this fine release, and definitely I look forward to the next effort.
