Osteonecrovore
(Iron, Blood And Death Corporation)
27:26min
Great fucking logo! I love the skulls for the ‘O’s in the name of the band but the name itself sounds like it is a Japanese anime series, which can be both a good and a bad thing. DEATH BLOOD hail from France and “Osteonecrovore” is their first ever release. The fine folks at Iron, Blood And Death Corporation have put out this EP. Antonio at IBDC knows what he’s doing, he often scouts the depths of the internet and the physical world to unearth some excellent Death Metal and DEATH BLOOD comes close to that. The drumming can get slightly over the top from time to time but otherwise DEATH BLOOD manage to create a suffocating atmosphere with deep growls that compliment their wall of sound. I’m going to keep this very very simple and say this is HM-2 Metal that’s done well, if you’re fan of ENTOMBED, this is your jam! The solos are delightful, swerving their way through the dense atmosphere while still retaining a beautiful sense of melody. It is actually really well done! (Track # 3, ‘Awaiting Release’). The vocals are on point, the vocalist does a phenomenal job of churning note after note of intense hatred coupled with a sense of urgency. The guitars are equally well done, I mean with HM-2 Metal, you know what you’re expecting and the band does nothing different to deviate from the pristine path of Swedish Death Metal. The release is just 27 and a half minutes long and the band goes through one song after another quickly. “Osteonecrovore” is simply an entire slab of Metal that has been taken from the foundry and left as it, you’d love it as an entity but the songs themselves don’t quite stand apart from each other which is actually fine. One could argue the same about established Swedish Death Metal bands but well, you’ve all heard those in your teens and you’ve heard them a 1000 times so coming close to that experience is a bit tough. Having said that, DEATH BLOOD does manage to come close to that experience in my opinion. Track # 4, ‘Never Say Die!’ is a prime example where the guitar solo takes us through a journey through the mountains, it almost feels Tolkien’ish and I really enjoyed it. This shows the band has potential to create an identity for themselves in the market of HM2 clones where you cannot differentiate one entity from another but they all sound coherent upon listening. I like this release, but I don’t know if I’d want to listen to this release in particular and pick this album up from my collection on a given day. It could be a little down the order but that doesn’t take away the quality of music on this release. Recommended! For more information, please visit: www.facebook.com/deathbloodband, www.facebook.com/ibdc666
Vamsi Kanagovi