CASKET
Undead Soil
(Blow Jack Records / Joe Black Records)
42:05min

When this release was offered to review, I immediately responded, hoping this was the German CASKET who released the great demo, "Endtime", in 1994 and seeing one track called ‘Casketball’ already hinted these guys were the one. They also released two demos prior to this one, namely "’ne Volkanne" in 1991 and "Demo ’93" in 1993. Especially "Endtime" really shredded with an immense heavy sound comparable to the old CARCASS, DISHARMONIC ORCHESTRA and GRAVE (all 2nd album) and ROTTREVORE. After this, they released two albums "Under The Surface" in 1998 and "Upright Decay" in 2008. Due to the strikingly less brutal approach that marked their fourth demo from 1996 "Meant To Be Dead", which was still pretty good, the urge to check these albums out faded. They were hard to get, so that didn’t encourage as well. Fortunately their bandpage features almost the entire "Upright Decay" album, so that was a godsend. Listening to these tunes, the excitement that the old tunes created stays absent. They perform a type of Death Metal that has too much groove and thrashy riffing to tolerate. It’s some kind of boring shit that drags on and on. It was hard to distinguish one track from another. Really too bad ’cause the demos were much better! Now, in 2013, their third album "Undead Soil" is released and being slightly better than "Upright Decay", featuring twelve tracks and a running time of just over 40 minutes. Still it’s not a killer by far! It’s technical and hammering, but messy, monotonous and boring. Two old demo tracks from "Endtime", ‘Casketball’ and ‘Masturbating In Psalms’ were the last hope for something exciting, but they turned out being unrecognizably raped too much for their own good. What the hell happened?! For those who liked their previous album(s), it’s a good buy. For those who preferred their demos (too much?), stay away from this or at least make sure you listen first at http://casketdeath.bandpage.com/music. Available for 12,- Euro (Germany) / 14,-Euro (world) ppd. at shopping@casket.de. More info at www.casket.de, www.joeblackrecords.de.

Michael Tak

Michael Tak

Related reviews / interviews:
CASKET - Urn (Vamsi Kanagovi)
CASKET - Feast Of The Fiends / In Search Of Blood (David Simonton)
CASKET - Ghouls Of Filth (David Simonton)
CASKET - Generation Kill (Luxi Lahtinen)

Leave a Reply