Luckily, amid the shitstorm, a couple of more acceptable recent releases have managed to just keep the label relevant; French stalwarts No Return, Germany’s promising  Epsilon, Sounds of Fury, Tomb of Finland, The Vision Ablaze, and this, the debut from France’s Mesoamerican inspired Chabtan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxa0I8NI3ro

Don’t get me wrong, there’s some sort of analogy I can use about getting something acceptable when everything else is crap I can use here, as Chabtan are by no means world beaters, but compared to some of the garbage listed above this is Mozart. But what Chabtan do, is deliver is pretty solid form of modern melodic death metal/00s metal core that reminds me of later, more melodic Heaven Shall Burn (i.e Veto).

It’s beefy, it’s got some some nice oomph, it’s got some solid grooves , some gravelly vocals and some decent blasts here and there. A smatter of synths and the aforementioned Mesoamerican elements make it interesting. Heck, there’s even a couple of rousing songs such as “Born from Vucub Caquix” or closer “Visions of the Snake” that I actually rather enjoyed. But for the most part the band rage and thrash with energy and aplomb on the likes of “Ixtab”  or “Anthropomorphic Beast” (Where I really heard Heaven Shall Burn) and they even get a little more progressive and adventurous on the likes of “Ah Puch Reign” and “Reptile”.

Again, with Mighty’s slim pickings, I’m getting some enjoyment from a  relatively medicore album, but I cant deny a couple of the above songs got my foot tapping rather than rolling my eyes or gagging as the bands in the opening paragraph. PLEASE let the new Brutality album get here.