What happens when musicians who already know the entire vocabulary of Death Metal deliberately strip it back toward the genre’s primitive foundations? A merging of the vanguard of both the Swedish and German Death Metal scenes is not a chase for the old school Death Metal sound; it is the complete embodiment. With decades of immersion within the genre, the musicians who comprise LEPER COLONY have a first-hand understanding of the mechanics of extreme music. With “Back To Primal Sludge” LEPER COLONY intersect the sounds of early European and American Death Metal at the time where the Thrash Metal foundation was evolving into something with more rigidity and more frontal aggression. Boasting a line-up that includes heavy hitters such as riff engine Rogga Johansson (PAGANIZER, RIBSPREADER, REVOLTING), Marc Grewe (original vocalist of MORGOTH), Håkan Stuvemark (WOMBBATH) and Jon Rudin (RIBSPREADER), there is no shortage of experience and talent. Two violent elements – American riff construction and old school Swedish tonality – are brought together throughout the new record, LEPER COLONY do not recreate any one particular part of the Death Metal scene as much as they represent the moment Death Metal fragmented into its recognizable sub-genres. If we go back to the early formational days and take stock of the classic demos and records of the ancient scene, the albums weren’t neatly separated into the plethora of categories we use today. The foundational bands were all, at the time, participating in the broader process of figuring out what Death Metal actually was. LEPER COLONY’s new music feels like an honest attempt to return to that common music vocabulary. This creates a piece of music that is primitive, melodic without becoming saccharine, groovy without losing its focus on intensity and brutal without the prerequisite of extreme technicality. The album opens with the stellar ‘Madness Is A Kingdom’, bringing together many smaller constituent parts into a total sum of wanton brutality. There is much to focus on right from the start, most noticeably the riff phrasing, the production and the vocals. The riff work is hugely rhythmic with a bestial tone that adds deep growl to palm-muted notes lower in timbre while still maintaining a bright slicing quality during single-note melodic tremolo phrases. The production allows for a huge state of rhythmic space, making simple riff shapes into massive sounding movements, attacking through repetition and searing tone. The vocals of Marc Grewe stand out immediately. They are not a subsonic guttural vomit, but a scathing, maddening and menaced rasp, bursting forth something similar to OBITUARY’s John Tardy. The song moves through states of speed and groove, achieving ugliness without sacrificing songwriting capacity, feeding into a hook-heavy chorus that is absolutely sonically massive, exuding power and violence without mercy. ‘These Blades’ bursts out like a Death Thrash calvary charge, taking that thrashing element present in proto Death Metal and making it truly maximal, the type of song that gets crowds moving uncontrollably. Periods of intense rhythmic speed are contrasted by mid-tempo chunky riff structures, with the Johansson / Stuvemark riff dynamo working at full power. The title track sits directly in the center of the album. Grewe’s vocal patterns feel natural and organic when placed atop the maelstrom of crunch and percussion, with his presence in the chorus expanding the scope of power, accenting riffs, bringing crushing forward movement to the whole song. There is clear separation between rhythm and lead, interacting with one another to create both melodic shapes and periods of merging dissonance, especially during the chorus. Entering the second half of the album is the blistering ‘Flesh Grater’, an amalgamation and summary of techniques used thus far. Death thrashing madness mixes with earth-shaking double-bass and the constant churn of distortion, reaching levels of floor-shaking intensity signature to the early works of groups like BOLT THROWER or GRAVE. Once again, the relationship between the vocals and guitars is just perfect. ‘Harness the Undead’ gives us LEPER COLONY at their strongest, in an aural sense. It is a full and dense attack, bearing extreme sonic gravity, with Jon Rudin’s percussion really taking a commanding presence in the song. A slower mid-tempo phrase opens the track before its focus narrows like a sniper’s vision, bringing forward blast beats and double-bass attack. A song of this magnitude is a great fit for the later reaches of the record, keeping the album fresh and engaging deep into its playback. “Back To Primal Sludge” ends with a death spasm in the form of ‘Beneath The Fat And Gristle’, a short spastic strike lasting roughly three minutes, showing a Death Metal approach that is more steeped in the intensity of the middle-to-late 1990s. The embodiment of the old school ethos is on full display. If the objective was to return the listener back to the early formational days of the genre, this is the track that does it best. It rides the concept of heavy Thrash Metal and pushes it forward until it moves like a sonic landslide. The solo towards the closing moments of the album lasts only a couple of measures, but its presence is a fitting end statement to a powerful record. “Back To Primal Sludge” cannot simply be reduced to just another competent old school Death Metal album. It is historically conscious extreme Metal writing, representing a period of Death Metal before it became maximally downtuned and guttural. Armed with aggressive but comprehensible riff crafting, very memorable vocal patterns and periods rotating between thrashing and Death Metal pacing, the album possesses a fluidity that simply cannot be replicated by those that weren’t there to create it originally. “Back To Primal Sludge” ends up being a most fitting title for the record, as it truly reverts back to the sludgy physicality already present inside primitive Death Metal, creating a stark performance with memorable moments that will stick with the listener and eventually draw them back for repeat listens. For more information on LEPER COLONY, see www.facebook.com/lepercolonyband and for more information on Testimony Records, be sure to check out www.facebook.com/testimonyrecords.