After a 5-year wait, Germany’s most American-sounding death metal stalwarts, Dehuman Reign, are back with album number 3. And little has changed since 2020s Descending Upon the Oblivious.

Still playing a safe, predictable yet effective sound inspired by the likes of Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Monstrosity, and Malevolent Creation, the band delivers 9 songs and 2 intro/outros in 43 minutes of no-frills, thrashy old-school Floridian death metal.

Nothing more, nothing less, and like the last album and the one before it, it’s decent, not great, but not bad either. The production is crisp and tight, the vocals are nice and gruff, and a few tunes like “Opiuim”, “Post Traumatic Suicide Syndrome”,  “Ancient Enemy”, and groovy “Heretic” actually got my feet tapping a bit.

However, once the back-end tracks like “An Envoy from the In-Between” and  “Preparing Armageddon” roll around, my interest wanes a bit, despite being solid tracks.

Still, the fact that the band has sounded basically the same since forming in 2012 and releasing their debut EP in 2013 shows the consistency and comfort level that these guys are still doing it with, and doing it together with ease.

Well, here is another one. A solid one at that.

Death Kommander is an international project with members from Scotland, Greece, Germany, and Switzerland, and Never To Grow Old is their second album of Bolt Thrower worship, which doesn’t hide the fact that they are literally a Bolt Thrower cover band. As their style isn’t kinda or sorta like Bolt Thrower… It’s a virtual clone of the band’s classic style, notably the slower, more somber material.

The 8 songs contained on this short, no frills, 31-minute affair focus on the trundling, slower tropes of Bolt Thrower’s 20th century, war-infatuated era ( Mercenary, Honour Valor Pride, Those Once Loyal, For Victory), complete with those somber strains contained in the leads and solos that layered the hefty, rumbling riffs.

I really don’t have to expound that much more; it’s that simple. The songs have titles like “Bayonet Drill”, “Through the Chest”, and “Where Is the Front”. And they really lean into the doomier, mid-paced aspect of the sound, as tracks like opener “Bayonet Drill”, “Bazentin Wood”, “Yellow Cross”, and standout memories “Memories” rarely get out of second gear. And when they do such like “Through The Chest”, it’s still pretty restrained. It’s basically 31 minutes of the main riff from the title track from Bolt Thrower‘s For Victory. It even comes with a moody, semi-spoken word closer in “Where Is The Front”.

Only minor gripe is that production (mainly the bottom end) could be a little beefier, as its a little light for the style. I mean with a truly burly production, tracks like “Memories” could have been truly artillery barrage heavy, instead its like small arms fire. But, still, it’s a fine homage that makes no bones about its clear influence.

Nekrodeus hails from Austria and Ruaß (Austrian for ‘Soot’, but also a slang term for ‘rabble’ or ‘scum’) is their third album since forming in 2013, their first on FDA Records, but they are a completely new band to me. But I’m pretty impressed with what I’m hearing on Ruaß.

Though certainly mostly loosely falling under the Teutonic Black metal banner at its cold, frosty, tremelo picking heart, there is a heavier, distinct punk sneer buried within that makes it a little more. I mean, just go to the third track “Frost” or fourth track, the standout “To Bite the Hand That Holds the Leash”…. or tumbling “Körperstrafe”. Yeah, that sounds like an earlier, more vicious version of Kverlertak. Dark Throne fans might enjoy some of this as well, though this is a little nastier. I keep coming up with the term ‘Skate Black Punk metal’ in my head.

But I’m digging the fuck out of it over some of their slightly more black/ death metal tracks like opener “Abgrundmensch I”, “Trümmerjugend”, “The Seeds of Your Own Destruction”.  All fine black metal ( though still punkier) salvos to be sure, but the other tracks with the other influences just have a little more oomph, grime, and sneer to them.

The very slight death metal part of the black/death vibe is the occasionally used deeper death bellows from vocalist Stefan Rindler, who also has a more deathcore/mealcore screeh that traditional back metal rasp (and the odd gang chant) and a guitar tone that is razor sharp and also has a little inherent punkiness to it- and that tone really gets under your skin for slower tracks like “Abgrundmensch II” “Astraldepression” and moody closer ‘Sternenleichen”.

Another win  for the always reliable FDA Records and one thst just a little out of thier usial comfort zone.

Well,  the new EP from Germany’s Evoked checks both the boxes. I rather enjoyed their debut album Ravenous Compulsion back in 2019 as it delivered a spot on early Asphyx/Pestilence vibe, right down to the Martin Van Drunen-ish howls of bassist Simon Alexander Wind (aka ‘Bonesaw’).

And in the last 5 years since the debut, nothing has changed – and that’s a good thing. The 5 songs from this short but sweet EP deliver perfectly rendered The Rack,  Malleus  Maleficarum, and Consuming Impulse-styled death metal. Nothing more, nothing less.

The 20 minutes of Old-school goodness starts with the galloping title track and ends with “Blunt Force Trauma” and in the middle is the best tracks “A Nameless Grave” and “Behind the Eyes”, with what amounts to perfect old-school death metal; furious, cantering, hooky riffs, some blasts and stout grooves. Perfect. And the vocals just hammer the influence home that these guys are one of the better early Pestilence/Asphyx homages out there right now.

So the old-school cover should give it away, but Apparition (featuring ex and current members of Ataraxy, Bloodsoaked Necrovoid, and Inexorable End) plays classic, old-school death metal in the vein of early Death, Pestilence, Possessed, Master, Obituary, and such. And they do it very well indeed.

It’s simple, effective, and enjoyable. Nothing more nothing less. Vocalist/bassist Eduardo has a throaty shout that imbues early Chuck Schuldiner, Martin Van Drunen and John Tardy. The riffs are classic thrash old school riffs when death metal was in its formative years crawling out of thrash and punk, but with that early sense of gravelly and earthy, nasty sheen and energy.

The production though makes things a little more modern and breathes a little modern life into dusty, primal tracks like “The Black Witch”, “Demonic Torment”, “Mummified Santity”, slow-burning “Apparition” or Slayer -ish “Soldier of Death” (complete with Araya-esqe wail). And as you can see from the song titles and themes are pure old school as well. That said, nothing blows me away or cries classic amid all the old-school furor.

If you are into modern retro death bands like Morfin, Skeletal Remains, Undead, Evoked (basically a lot of FDA Records releases over the last few years) Gruesome, and such, definitely check this out.

Want a 14-song, 29-minute gut punch of HM2-tuned Nasum and Rotten Sound-styled grindcore? Just fucking get this.

From start to finish, Der Ertraeger und das Fleisch (“The Yielder and the Flesh”?) is a face-ripping, power cord, blast beat, groove-filled slab of utter chaos that arguably matches or even outdoes the last couple of Rotten Sound efforts, notably this year’s Apocalypse.

The album has a massive HM2 guitar tone, and feral screams and mostly delivers fucking blistering, buzzing, largely sub two and three- minute salvos such as “Narrenkappe”, “Fleischlawine Eisentod”, “Aequivalent Scheisse”,  “Faschrist”, “Sysiphos” or “Sieben”. And these tracks are just fucking paint-peeling salvos of bad intentions that will rattle your fillings.

But as their peers often masterfully did/do, they slow things down a little here and there with a few songs that have a grooving, brooding, pace like the almost 6-minute “Das Leid und sein Gift”, “Theresa”, or closer “Das kalte Beil”.

Killer stuff from FDA records, and arguably one of the most intense, savage albums the label has released.

Well after 9 years they are at it again with album number 5, and while it’s probably not a reunion or comeback that the death metal world was clamoring for (be honest, how many of you had heard of these guys?). However, it’s a solid, if by the numbers, old-school death metal album.

With song titles like “Abjuring the Holy Trinity”, “Luciferi Imperator Omnipotens” and “Massive Demonic Warfare”, you kind of know what you are getting into here as Decapitated Christ runs the gauntlet of influences from primarily Floridian Death metal, but also Immolation, Bolt Thrower, Deicide and such.

It’s not bad by any means, but certainly far from FDA’s best release. It’s just…. another death metal album. Nothing stands out (other than a few blackened elements here and there), and nothing makes it bad. It’s decently produced, vocalist ‘NalghaLord’ has a solid array of growls and as a whole, I’ll nod my head if a track like “Orients Princeps Belzebub” or very Bolt Thrower-y “Assault on the Ravaged Wastelands”  comes on.

But unlike many FDA releases, I’ll have forgotten about it as soon as it’s over.

The quick 32-minute album delivers everything that the EP did, including the vicious vocals of Lorenza De Rossi, who along with Lucy Ferra from label mates Abolish (and Inhuman Depravity)  might be one of the most powerful female death metal vocalists out there.

And while the sound is still rooted in a backbone of Incantation, Immolation, or even Corpsessed, etc, in that this has that murky, cavernous sound, compared to the EP, this is pretty clean sounding comparatively speaking and maybe a little less muddy or heavy than the EP (it looks like a new crew mix/mastered and produced from the EP).

And this slightly cleaner tone saps a little of the menace from the otherwise solid material that covers the gamut of expected slower, icky riffs and atonal vortexes of blasting riffs. From the opener “Apparitions” to the closer “Innumerable Dimensions”, the album blows by with surprising quickness, and the riffs all do their thing. But the heft is a little dry and the blasts hit a little less hard and truthfully only “Sulphuric Asphyxiation” stuck with me or made me hit repeat.

And thus, while Sublimis Igotum Omni doesn’t quite fulfill the promise of the debut EP, its still a solid death metal record for those into the Incantation worship style of death metal that still seems to be very popular.

And while Inhuman Depravity was a much more brutal, technical tale of death metal that leaned hard into Suffocation and Sinister realms, Abolish is a more basic (not in a bad way), old-school death/doom metal style that has more in common with the likes of Runemagick, Obituary, Bolt Thrower, early Death and Massacre (though not quite as Massacre worshipping as Japanese label mates Parasitario) .

If that kind of thing floats your dingy, then Abolish will be for you as it does simple, trundling, plodding sometimes doomy, death metal quite well. The 43-minute, 7-song album, does nothing more, nothing less. It’s got a beefy production, Ferra’s growls are guttural and powerful, and the songs deliver plenty of mid-paced, rumbling death metal that rarely breaks pace.

The 7 pretty long songs mainly reside in that Obituary/Bolt Thrower mix of steady, mid-paced trundle, blast beat and doomy lope heard right away on the opener “Pervert Divine Doctrine” and “Curtain of Night” and closer.  And while there are blast beats, as the band can throttle up when they want ( “Ruins of Empire”, “Forsaken Home of the Dead” )  the majority of the album is that familiar gait. There are also some songs that slow down a little more into more pure,  aforementioned death/doom territory such as “Recm in the Ungodly Lands”, “Beyond the Forgotten Gates of the Otherside”   and my favorite track of the album, the crawling lumber of “Venomous Saints”, though still littered with the occasional blast beat.

In all a solid, no-frills debut of old-school death/doom metal, that you’d expect from FDA Records and gives us another release that exposes a rising vocalist in the genre in Lucy Ferra.

But with the trio’s third effort, FDA Records has found a genre standout to add to their stable of death metal/ doom and grindcore as Bexadde is a pretty damn good effort of the genre for fans of early Deafheaven, Ghostbath, and fellow germans Downfall of Gaia.

4 songs covering 43 minutes of well-produced, slightly despondent, tremolo-picked black metal with lots of atmospheric and post elements, Bexadde isn’t an immediate quick listen, though it gets right to the point with immediate opener “Asche”. The rangy songs cover a wide span of sounds and emotions from furious, 6/8 riffs, subtle synths, and restrained bridges layered with pained shrieks, more somber semi-clean wails, and chants in the varied vocal department. All of these things come together within the 8 to 13-minute songs. They don’t do too much building or patient ebbs, but rather inject short introspective moments in the framework of the songs as heard in “Lowest Servant”.

Closer “Molten Gold” is the album’s longest, most ambitious, and standout track but still, there’s never quite a full…… ‘release’ or crescendo to the riffs and builds within the songs, that the genre often has. The track comes close about 9 minutes in but doesn’t fully deliver. When it’s all said and done I’m more apt to reach for the new Soul Dissolution album for this style right now.

Still, a nice, ‘out of their comfort zone’ release for FDA Records, who keep growing as a premier label.

With an album title like Tyrants of Doom, I was expecting a full-on turn into more doom death, (which has always been a part of their sound as well as muses, Autopsy), but the balance from prior albums has remained with an ample heaping of visceral death metal along with the expected scrawling, oozing Autopsy ish hues.

And to these ears (it’s been two years since the last album, Ancient Death Triumph), even with a base sound, things are dare I say melodic than what I recall, with Jörg Uken’s cleaner (God Dethroned, Dawn of Disease, Dew-Scented) recording, but also the songwriting leaning a little into a more Dismember tone and style, with more solos than I recall of prior efforts.

Of course, I could be completely wrong and they have sounded like this for a few albums now, but regardless, it does not change the fact Tyrants of Doom is a killer effort both in recording and more varied, dynamic songwriting. I mean go listen to  “Necromantic Visions”, about a minute in it turns into a song that could have been from Massive Killing Capacity. The same for the leads in “Pestilent Tombs” or “Drown in Filth” and “Parasitic”. But there are still loads of immediately identifiable Autopsy-inspired blasts and crawls like open “Mauled”,  “Coffined Savior”, “Grave Nihilist” and most certainly the title track.

Continuing from the 2018 Abbatior EP, the album ends with a cover of Carnivore’s “Predator”, and homage to Lord Petrus Steele, and ends the album on a slightly different note, but still makes for a killer album from a band that’s starting to get a real solid level of consistency with their releases.

Continuing the band’s war-obsessed themes and sound that’s part Hail of Bullets, part Asphyx (especially in the vocal department), and part Bolt Thrower, and like 1914, Scalpture are once again tackling WWI for Feldwärts (fieldwards!). And in doing so, have delivered one of the best death metal albums of 2022, though it’s unfortunately likely to be vastly overlooked in 2022s gamut of metal releases.

For its 9 song, 39 minute run time, Feldwärts delivers absolutely top-notch death metal from start to finish, and in those 39 minutes manages to do everything perfectly from paint peeling blast beat, thunderous, trundling grooves, and even a few moments of somber atmosphere and poignance, fitting the subject matter.

Every song on Feldwärts rips. Every…. fucking….song. There isn’t a weak note or song from the opening and closing bookends, the furious”To End All Wars” to “The Road Back”, with its appropriately somber closing minutes. In between, you get the VERY cool if all too short choral break in ” Ils n’ont pas passé”, some acoustic refrains and a stern march in “Challenging the Empire”,  Bolt Thrower ish rumble of “Thunder in the East”, steady somber, mid-paced stomp of “Grabengott”, blistering “Landships” and the massive, moody mid-paced groove of “Through Hell and On”, the album’s arguable standout. All of it is rendered with a razor-sharp, clear, and searing production.

Feldwärts is arguably my favorite FDA records release since Entrails‘ Tales From the Morgue way back in 2010, it’s that good. I hope the band and this release gets more traction as the year goes on as it’s easily one of 2022s best death metal records.

Plying a sort of punky, death ‘n’ roll-ish death metal/grindcore, Faeces Christ go for that off-kilter, low brow, horror-filled, semi-humorous (as if the band moniker and album title were not enough of a giveaway)  Blood Duster-y approach with song titles like “The Goatse and the Goat”, “Cadaverous Erection”, “People Piss Me Off”, “Menstrual Cup” and “Video Nasty”. And those lecherous ditties are delivered with some of the worst vocals I’ve heard recently, with bassist/vocalist ‘D’ using a semi howled, shout, and occasional growl, that just hits me all sorts of wrong.

The thing is, Gimme Morgue! has a fucking KILLER guitar tone, with a thick Wolverine Blues-y low end and buzz, and occasionally they deliver a pretty fun, romping riff as heard on “People Piss Me Off” or “Rest in Piss” (replete with someone pissing sample…. hilarious), “Parasite”, and ‘catchy’ “Video nasty”. All delivered with sneering, punky energy, and competency in the riff writing department, but those vocals and the overall result, just do not make for an enjoyable 32 minutes. Even the 5-minute closer “Embalmed in Vomit”, which tries to be a ‘real’ Swedish death metal song with a moody, varied pace is offset by the vocals. But I’m guessing that’s kinda what these guys want, and almost assuredly don’t care.

A rare miss (in my lowly opinion) for FDA Records, but thankfully the absolutely killer Scalpture album, Feldwärts makes up for it.

Lying somewhere between Corpsessed’s miasmal, sometimes doomy churn and Entrails’s beefy, Stockholm HM 2 sound (courtesy of Italy’s Peter Tagtgren, Carlo Meroni), The 3 original songs and cover of Nirvana 2002‘s “Slumber” (another clue as to the band’s influences) bring forth a pretty damn solid entry to the genre and Italian death metal.

Opener “Carved into Obscurity” starts with an impressive, menacing double bass trundle and HM 2 heft laced with icky feedback and ends with a damn good, sickly, doomy crawl. “Spawned in Desolation” enters the fray with a dense, slower riff before exploding with that murky, Corpsessed like a torrent of heft. its very very well done, and pretty oppressive, and when combined with the more Stockholm leaning production, carries a lot of weight.

“Left Unknown” initially starts with a more dreamy, psychedelic, doomy, Morbus Chron vibe that it injects here and there amid more vile, heaving heft. The Ep ending cover of Nirvana 2002′s “Slumber” from their 1990 demo, Disembodied Spirits, is the more up-tempo and typically ‘Stockholm-y’ of the tracks with the expected canter and the production highlights the more Swedish influence.

In all, a very solid introductory EP from a band I’ll be looking forward to output from.

Well, I research the band a bit, find out that after some lineup changes from the last efforts, the members are/were also some pretty major Finnish heavyweights like Corpsessed, Soluthus, and Gorepillia and the album is a conceptual story based on a Greek warrior’s battles and betrayals,  (let’s be honest, I finally read the promo one-sheet that came with the album) and I’m always down for some historic battling.  So I revisited the album recently and came away very impressed.

What we have is something that, while in the doom realm, and certainly has one boot heavily planted in the familiar melodic but melancholic lope of the Finnish doom/death scene, there’s a lot more going on here, and it’s all very good. The varied moods and styles played by Cataleptic mirror the story of the album central character, and so the moods ebb and flow; from the more urgent clarion of battle that opens the album with “Alpha Strike”, which might be a Wolfheart or Insomnium number, with a sterner, fiercer gait, and pacing and a nice mid-song break. The second track “Disarmed. Disowned. Betrayed” features a blackened blast beat that might be on the last Altars of Grief album, Iris, and some meaty Aeternus ish , war-metal marching, so it definitely not just a full-on mopey doom fest.

That said, if you want some plodding, rending doom, with layers of typically Finnish melancholy, the last, 10+ minute cuts, (after 2 throwaway tracks “Whipped to Drudgery” and “Lost”) “Recompense in Death” and “To Burn This World (Omega Campaign)” deliver the pure doom heaves in throes of crushing despondency. The former with a lovely, somber acoustic last few minutes and the latter, a 13-minute monster, is a rending funeral doom slog of draining, ponderous melodies that their country mates and peers are more known for. The pace picks up for the last few minutes but it still has some gravitas within its rumbling climax (though I’m not sure about the gang chants). Vocalist Sami Iivonen doews an excellent job of bringing out the protagonist’s tribulation and pain in his already powerful bellow.

The album sounds amazing with an all-star Finnish cast in the production, mix, and master arena from Matti Mäkelä (Corpsessed) and Henri Sorvali (Finntroll, etc), so in all, yet another solid release from FDA records.

So what do we have in the sea of red and sinewy and blood contained in the NecroFrsot artwork here? The debut from a new German grindcore quartet, that’s what. And while Germany isn’t a renowned hotbed of Grindcore (Japanische Kampfhörspiele is the only one that immediately comes to mind, but I’m sure someone will correct me), his is a solid geindcore debut album after a 2019  demo and it delivers everything you’d expect from grindcore with a little death metal thrown in.

9 songs in 34 minutes is a little more death metal structured, so there aren’t the usual 34, 1-minute songs that grindcore sometimes delivers and some of the songs push the 5-minute mark,  though there is a 1:14 song and a 35-second song, so there are the expected grindcore tropes as well. Also in the grindcore world are those sneering, punky blasting power chords that you’d hear on classic Napalm Death, Rotten Sound and Nasum records like opener “Carnage at the Morgue”, classic grindcore pacing of “Necrotronic”, “Axiom of Annihilation” (coincidently the 1:1 4 song), “Curbside Lacerations”, ” Disincarnate”, the perfectly grindcore titled,  “Spiritual Enslavement” and of course the 35-second song, closer “Anthropophagous Inhumation”.

But there are also a few varied moments buried in the furious grindcore pacing. The aforementioned “Curbside Lacerations” has a whole slow midsection, “Contamination Void” also has a slower, moody mid-song break, “Death Junkie (Addicted to Murder)” has an almost Morbid Angel churn to start and finish,  and the early stages of “Leah Sublime”, could almost be a black metal song. But even with a few respites, make no mistake this is a modern grindcore album through and through.

The production is big and beefy, not quite the HM2 buzz that some grindcore bands use, but certainly effective, and the vocals are a pretty standard hat rasp/shout that does the job and keeps things suitably grindy. A solid debut and an expected, solid foray into homegrown grindcore from FDA Records.

The formula is still the same, even with a lineup shuffle that sees 1/2 the band different from The Dismal Circle, with a new drummer and guitarist joining the founding core of vocalist/guitarist Philipp Kruppa and bassist Oliver Kröplin. Oliver Carrell, again produces, but things seem a little heftier, especially the bottom end, where some of the moments are crushing. But the band is still delivering exceptional death-doom, with slightly over an hour of crippling music with 6 rangy songs that generally don’t tug on your heartstrings like some of the more emotional death/doom (My Dying Bride, Draconian etc), but slowly stomp on them and grind them to dust.

Again, I stand by the Morgion comparison, especially the Among Majestic Ruin era, as Ophis, as I mentioned above don’t really dwell on the more emotive, despondent side of doom but more on the crushing, crippling second stage or grief (‘anger’) with a few hints of the 4th stage (‘depression’). All mostly rendered with heaving, loping riffs , which again seems a tad heavier than the last album, and pained growled screamed vocals. There are no clean vocals, no female vocals, no cellos, and nothing that delivers any sense of hope or light amid the monstrous lumbering songs.

But unlike The Dismal Circle which really didn’t have any true standout moments, despite a high level of consistency, Spew Forth Odium has a couple that makes the album a little more memorable and replayable. For example “Conflagration Eternal”, which has both a massive more death metal paced opening rumble and a rare, gorgeously morose close out that’s more in line with some of their more emotive peers. “Temple Of Scourges” closes with a huge, thunderous, despondent lurch. “The Perennial Wound” has some brief churchy keys, and also features another massive, if short closeout.

Album closer “The Stagnant Roon” is the album’s longest cut at 13 and a half minutes, and is a suitably crawling, dense number with a slight layer of despondency but never truly crushes you with depression (even with a nice acoustic break and spoken word bridge) and the late black metal blast beat came a nice surprise. But shows that while a very good act, they aren’t quite up there with some of the genre’s legendary, seminal, influential death/doom bands of yore, but certainly a very competent modern band doing the genre justice.

However, the next 45 minutes (the album is a way too long 50 minutes), I’m completely bored. And not because its a bad album, its not, It does everything you’d want from an old school death metal album that that tries to mix Bolt Thrower and Dismember; solid mid range buzz, trundling riffs, occasional blast beat, some melodic canters etc. It’s just utterly average.

Even the slow rumbling, moody songs like “Where Death Is Recrowned” or closer “In the Wells They Await”, never really suck me in or get my neck snapping, and I usually love that shit. The whole affair is just by the numbers, OK death metal, its got an OK production, OK riffs, OK vocals; nothing special and nothing jumps out. I mean, tracks like “Army of Shadows” pure Both Thrower-y  “Unblessed Be Catharsis”, are Ok, but are just by the numbers songs that I like, but don’t really like.

Only “The Poet and the Meat Cleaver” elicited any sort of response with a short lived opening, galloping riff I enjoyed, which isn’t great for a nearly hour long album. But if you are in need of something in the style until new Entrails album or something similar, this would be an OK stop gap.

What caught my ear were the vocals of Apostolos Papadimitriou, who is a dead ringer for Scott Ruth of Ripping Corpse/filed down teeth fame. However musically, while Ripping Corpse is a little bit of an influence vocally, Rapture deliver a high octane death/thrash mix, with a heavy influence from the German scene, namely Kreator., as well as maybe a little bit of Dark Angel.

There really isn’t that much more to dig into. FDA records rarely missteps, and this is a solid 43 minutes of snarling death/thrash metal, that leans a little more into the nastier side with some death metal growls and blasts here as heard on “I Am Become Death” (and a few brief atmospheric moments) and there. Song titles like “Birthrape Leftovers, Praising the Maggots” and “Malevolent Demise Incarnation” tease a more brutal death metal theme, but in reality, Rapture and more of a juiced-up thrash act.

That all said, I probably won’t be revisiting this any time soon, as none of the songs really jumped out at me, even 8 minute closer “Requiem for a Woeful Dynasty (Memento Mori)” which delivers a wide range of pacing and speeds. But it adds another decent record to FDA’s catalog.

There’s not much more to expound upon really. It’s pretty well done, has a nice modern beefy production, no-frill Corpsegrinder ish vocals, lots of blasting and a few grooves and overall a competent no-nonsense release. There are no real standout tracks, but no bad tracks either. The 9 songs and 3 interludes blast by with gusto for 44 minutes and rarely break rank.

If I had to pick a couple of better tracks, it’d be “‘Serenade to the Blood Moon”, the surprisingly melodic “Caputo”, or the catchy canter of “Eternity’s Embrace”  as they add some melodic, variety and a few little slower lumbers amid the standard American blasts. That said one of the pure blasters “Repay Your Dept in Blood” caught my ear with a pretty solid main riff.

Rounded out by 6 minute “Self Induced Mass Extinction”, the album’s only real ‘slower’ number (though it has some blasts as well),  I found my self enjoying the album more and more, as the band lock into a pretty cool melodic but beefy form of death metal. But it FDA records so you know you are not going to get anything bad from the label, especially when it comes to death metal.

This is open window, driving own the highway, singing out loud rock. The vocals of front-man Ålarik are the clear highlight with a svelte tone that’s uplifting, yet a bit despondent, which carries over to much of the music. I get a weird Sentenced meets Soilwork (their most radio friendly stuff) meets Ignite, pop, mish mash vibe that I can’t quite put my finger on.

The Jens Bogren (Opeth, Dimmu Borgir, Arch Enemy At The Gates, etc) mix/master is expectedly polished and big sounding, befitting these sort of arena rock anthems, and giving the affair a bit more ‘true’ metal heft. But its Ålarik’s voice that carries the songs with big brash choruses and subtle keyboards that get your foot involuntarily tapping as heard on opener “Straaling”, “Parasite”, “Wasted” and “Arnold”. The somber elements surface for the likes of “No One Around Me”, closer “The King of Silence” and ballad-ish “When Everything Disappears” which still deliver sturdy guitar driven rock, but have a little more downtrodden aura

Certainly not something I would go out and purchase, but certainly a enjoyable out of my comfort zone listen that when one of the songs comes on I hum along and bob my head. And I applaud FDA records for stepping out of their comfort zone as well with this release. It will be interesting to see if its a trend for the label or simply a surprisingly tolerable one off.

Not too bad. Not great by any stretch, but certainly a solid, high energy, throw back, no frills death metal album that shows that these guys/kids did a ton of sitting around listening to all the classic mainly American 90s death  and thrash metal releases that mattered. Hell Awaits, Seven Churches, Altars of Madness, Deicide, Leprosy, The Ten Commandments, Onwards to Golgotha etc.

The album does not start that well, with a pretty clunky , forgetful opener in “Lord of the Pit”, but it improves after that. “Bizarre Dreams” and “Infernal Covenant” (with its surprising melodic solo)  shows the band’s early Morbid Angel and thrashier leanings and “Diabolic Intent” has a almost melodic death metal gallop and riff that’s pretty enjoyable. “Sinkhole of Ghosts” has a clear Slayer influence  then “Spawn the Cycle of Putrefaction” return to a more discordant Incantation-y vibe, and “Necrocrypt” has another cool lead solo.

In fact, as the album goes on, I’m more inclined to say these guys are far more of a death/thrash band than a pure death metal band. Other than the more death metal vocals, cover and themes, the song structures are much more death/thrash and thrash based. Just listen to the closing title track (which even has a little atmospheric bridge).  But still a solid little release from FDA Records, exposing the world to a promising little Japanese band.

That should be enough to go on, especially is you are familiar with Hail of Bullets and of course, Asphyx. These guys have the same paint peeling, skin searing guitar tone, some Martin Van Drunen ish vocals, and a superb delivery of European Death metal with equal part lumbering, trundling assaults and blasting salvos.

Littered with soundbites from the classic World War I movie,  All Quiet on the Western Front,  Eisenzeit (‘Iron Age’), the 37 minute run time is a perfect death metal length. The album gets betters as it goes on as well. Not that openers like ” …Ebbs into Stalemate” or ” Und Ehre ist’s”  are chopped liver but at around the Bolt Thrower ish churn of  “Hinterlandsymphonie”, the album really picks up steam with some strong song writing and some truly steam rolling moments.

From the steady gallop and rumble of the title track to scathing “Hell is a Field in France”, standout “Yperite”, pummeling “Of Daredevils and Doughboys”, to the more somber closer “All Quiet of the Western Front”, Eisenzeit hits all the right notes for war themed death metal. And if you want a little more, there’s a bonus hidden track , a live rendition of “No Rest, No Sleep, No Peace”,  from the band debut album, Panzerdoktrin. So go check this album out from the always reliable FDA records.

Culling heavily from The Rack as well as the Malleus  Maleficarum and  the aforementioned Consuming Impulse (just listen to “Desolate Animation”), Ravenous Compulsion, is pure old school European (well, clearly Dutch) styled death metal done really well. Not only does it have clear and concise influences that will please old school fans, both in its song writing and paint peeling production (and Drunen-ish shrieks and howls of frontman…….) , they add enough of their own quality spin to make it more than just a simple homage.

Ironically, the opening song is called “Resurrect the Source” , and I thought for damn sure I had accidentally started playing The Rack.  The likes of “Not of Human Flesh”, the title track , “Festering Alive” and aforementioned “Desolate Animation” follow suite with a no frills, old school, ripping energy that’s as authentic as I’ve heard in a long time and I half expected the opening riff from “Out of the Body” to trample from the speakers at any time.

That said, songs like closer “Putrid Faith”, with its catchy little stomping trot and “The Trophy” and “Into Obliteration” show the band are not merely just ripping of their idols, but bring a solid song craft of their own to the table. I just wish there was a slower burning number akin to Asphyx’s “The Rack” to complete this very solid album.

I digress, Forward Into Darkness continues the band’s confident and competent Bolt Thrower, Jungle Rot, Hail of Bullets, God Dethroned throes – musically, vocally, and thematically  (with a little more emphasis on U-boat warfare here it seems), with 9 songs and one intro (“Submerge”) of quality chugging, lumbering, trundling death metal.

The focus is mostly mid-paced, double bass driven death metal with a few faster moments thrown into the fray (“Royal Blood Dethroned”, “Violence”, “Face Down”) but the meat and potatoes of the album is the likes of opener “Until you Died”, “Contact”, ” In the Deep there is no God”, “Poison Gas ” and the somber closer “The End” which all deliver satisfying rumbles and grooves in spades.

There’s not much more to expand on. Vocalist Tom Zorn has both and imposing growl and a dead-on Martin Van Drunen scream, the production from Thilo Krieger and master/mix from  Jörg Uken is beefy and hefty, there are some melancholic  Bolt Thrower-ish solos (“We’re all Condemned”, “The End”)  and the end result is another fine album from these grizzled Germans and the always reliable FDA Records.