Visceral Bleeding
Remnants Of Deprivation
Retribute
Swedish rockers Visceral Bleeding bring technical musicianship and math rock sensibilities to the fairly stagnant world of death metal from Sweden. Remnants Of Deprivation is kind of like an album of guys saying “Hey, watch how incredibly proficient and talented we are with our instruments!” This reminds me of Rush or Dream Theatre, without the commercial corniness or keyboards.
The drummer on Remnants… brandishes the blast beat a little too much here, so much so that it teeters on annoying (see “Carved Down to the Bone”). When he’s not trying to “outfast” the guitar players, his drumming is ridiculously fantastic and brutal, changing time signatures at the drop of a hat, without any hint of falter. The guitar players, as you might expect, are great, keeping the guitar solos to a minimum, favoring instead, thick and heavy riffs with melodic lines thrown about atop a nearly hidden bass guitar (this isn’t black metal though; the production quality is too good!). The vocalist could be the band’s only real issue: half the time he barks and growls like a champion and things are fantastic, but at other times he gets too “math” influenced, barking single noises in a cadence with the music (which is OK every once in a while); his laugh noises in “Spreader Of Disease” example this best. Yuck.
Overall, Remnants Of Deprivation is pretty solid stuff. Fans of Suffocation and Monstrosity will fancy Visceral Bleeding. Fans of Rush may enjoy this, strictly for the quality of musicianship. Good record.
Retribute Records: http://www.retributerecords.com
