I was pretty darn upset when Malignant Altar called it quits. I reviewed their Realms of Exquisite Morbidity debut album. So awesome. Memorable. Doomy, brutal and dark death metal.

Well, slap me in the face and say stop all that cryin’, because Terror Corpse contains former Malignant Altar members. That’s right, folks. Hailing from Houston, Texas, Terror Corpse came to fruition earlier this year, and Ash Eclipses Flesh, honestly sounds like the follow-up to that Malignant Altar album. Everyone sings in this band, a group effort. Christian is on bass, Dobber is on drums and Mat plays guitar. 10 songs in 36 minutes, with an absolutely phenomenal album cover to boot.

“Pyre of Ash and Bone” starts things off with terrifically heavy distorted bass guitar then right into the galloping madness, then BOOM, into the blasting. The 1.30 slow, doomy section is atmospheric and just evil-sounding. Really going for that Incantation vibe. I am feeling that big time. Some black metal-ish harmonies erupt over the blast, then into the double pounding madness with absolutely filthy vocals. They are fantastic.

As the song closes out, “Gate Zero” erupts instantly with a monstrous blast beat. This will catch you off guard and bodyslam you through the various levels of magma. Just as abrupt as that blast explodes, so does the slow, doomy crawl after it. Heavy, organic, and executed perfectly with that isolated, distorted bass right after. I am thrilled when this style of death metal pays attention to the bass guitar and, rather than have it follow the guitar sound, the bass guitar has its own flair, in this case, fuzzy distortion. There is so much fuzz on the isolated bass guitar moments, it calls to mind vintage Carcass. Think Symphonies of Sickness, for reference points. This song owns!!

“Nuclear Winter” is not a cover from Sodom, but rather a very short song at 1.15. Galloping out of the gates, the song goes right into the doom death, then squealing guitars take us on a blast. The song returns to galloping headbanging madness before ending. I appreciate this brief song as the band crams a lot into it, as well as showing us they can streamline songs to fit in an extra song in a live setting, perhaps?

“The Hollow That Devours” is the longest song at 4.48 and has excellent opening double bass drums all over this sucker. The song settles into a slow, hoppy number, with guitar riffage, right out of the vintage Autopsy playbook. We are treated to a nice drum roll, which transitions into a faster-paced gallop. More throaty vocals and galloping madness, and I like how the guitar soloing helps end this song.

The band does the “Into the Crypts of Rays” (Celtic Frost cover) pretty well. The ultra-low gutturals make the lyrics indecipherable, except for the chorus. They pay homage to one of the greatest extreme metal songs ever recorded, in a respectful manner, by keeping the pace the same as the original.

So this new Malign…I mean Terror Corpse debut album, Ash Eclipses Flesh, is fantastic and has been in constant rotation for me. Memorable, organic, heavy, evil, and dark. Truly capturing the essence of the origins of what death metal is supposed to be about. This is one of the best albums from Dark Descent Records in the last several years, and I am looking forward to hearing future recordings from Terror Corpse!

[Visit the band's website]

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