Welkin "Angel Inside" CD
[The Spew]
Here's some brutal death metal out of Belgium that's definitely got some kick to it. I was expecting something a bit faster and perhaps more straightforward than this, but I'm pleased by what I'm hearing. That's not to say that this is particularly technical or complex, it is straightforward to some degree, but there are a lot more tempo changes than I had expected, not to mention some interesting uses of disharmonic riffing and vocal variation. A lot of the songs are sort of based in the traditional early 90's death metal realm as far as tone and song structure - there are a lot of burly moderately paced rhythms, some faster tremolo picking and a few blasts, tasteful uses of pinch harmonics, guttural vocals, etc. But at the same time, the bass playing sometimes strays from the typical formula and blows through some killer runs, the guitars often hit on some subtle melodies or killer discordant chords, and sometimes the vocals wander towards higher screams or spoken passages. Plus, only one song hits five minutes, so the record flows well and doesn't get stale. And coming from me, that says a lot, because I can get bored by contemporary death metal pretty damn quickly. I really like the production here as well. The guitars are heavy as shit but clear, the bass has just enough definition to stand out amidst all the density, and the drumming sounds really good. Everything is tight without being overly rigid or unnatural. The mix is really nice because everything is close in together with no separation, but it's not sloppy or muddy either. This is one of the better sounding death metal records I've heard in recent years. The layout looks pretty good. There's a lot of abstract imagery collaged together (blurry, fast paced lines, small bursts of color, what looks like some sort of digitized texture) and aside from the band photos the only recognizable image is a faded, blurry photo of a woman blended into the front cover. Surprisingly most of the lyrics seem to be rather personal, they're not exactly my thing, but they're different from what I was expecting (in a good way). "In a blind and hollow darkness, I find skeptic relief, Unable to enjoy the silence, Because of what I cannot see, The memories of passed dreams, In a final fight, The panic in flooded eyes, Where is the light?" If you're into forceful, brutal death metal with a few twists, absolutely check this out. Not bad at all. I'll look forward to future efforts from these guys. (7/10)
Running time - 31:14, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: Embraced Reality, Stages of Awareness, Ethereal Tides]
The Spew Records - http://www.thespew.org

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