It’s a good thing that Autopsy really kicked ass with their last effort, The Headless Ritual, because two bands, Norway’s Obliteration and Germany’s Slaughterday are nipping at tier heels with their own excellent, Autopsy drenched sound that almost outdoes the masters.
Named after an actual Autopsy song, with Slaughterday, the influence is unashamedly front and center. Sloppy, sinewy old school death metal drenched in the stench of slow, musty crawls and loose, off kilter, twangy, visceral blasts. The only thing missing is more deranged vocals, as Bernd Reiners has a fairly standard old school death metal growl that never quite veers into Reifert insanity. Look no further than the second track, the title track which opens with a near rip off of Autopsy, but does it so well you can’t help but enjoy the fetid musk. And that is pretty much the gooey recipe for the whole album.
There really isn’t that much more to add. If you like Autopsy, you will get engorged by Nightmare Vortex. The production is a slightly cleaner take on that sloppy tone, and the lyrical themes aren’t as comically B movie, but song wise, each of the 8 tracks deliver a mix of all the above. All eight are great fun, like the the mid album trio of slower burn of “Addicted to the Grave” or more up tempo “Cosmic Horror” and “Morbid Shroud of Sickness” with its nice mid song creep. “Cult of the Dreaming Dead” also has a nice variety of sickly crawls and off kilter punky blasting that makes if recall many of Autopsy’s longer, sicker songs. The only thing missing is a real standout or monolithic track to define the album a little better, though 5 1/2 minute closer “Cryptic Desolation” comes close.
Like label mates Skeletal Remains, Morfin, Massive Assault, Funeral Whore and others, Slaughterday is a band that said “fuck it, we like (insert old school classic death metal band here)” and cloned the heck out of them with a sense of homage and respect and with enjoyable, nostalgic results. Good stuff.
