Ulcerate "The Coming of Genocide" CD
[self-released]
Fuck yeah, this is more like it! An excellent demo of brutal, moderately technical death metal from New Zealand. Guttural growls with a few higher screams layered in the background, a great mix of tempos that includes some odd time signatures as well as all the death metal staples, thick rhythms with a little dissonance, a tasteful amount of tremolo picking that doesn't get too tiresome, etc. Imagine a mix of Cryptopsy (but not that over the top), a dash of Suffocation, some of the Florida classics, and even a few more modern shredding riffs akin to the Polish scene. I'm definitely into this. They throw around a lot of changes, but they can write songs that are fluid enough to feel coherent and well arranged, it's crazy enough to jar you, but not so over the top that it becomes a mess. There are some really fucked up leads in "Second Death" that have a weird sort of obscure jazz fusion sound, but the playing is twisted so it sounds warped and unusual, and I like that. The recording is very fucking good for a demo as well. There's room for improvement of course, but believe me when I say that I've heard a great number of death metal records over the years released by the largest underground labels that do indeed sound worse than this demo. The drums are really crisp, which works to accent the tightness of the performance, but they're also really dense. The guitar tone is thick and textured with a good level of control, the vocals are dense and not too loud in the mix, and the bass peeks through enough to add to the tracks. If I could make any alterations I would smooth over a few inconsistencies in the drum sound, give the bass more prominence (without muddying things up), and see what happens from there. But they're off to a great start. The CD-R comes in a slim jewel case with a professionally printed booklet as well as artwork on the CD face, and the layout looks great as well. Clean text, nice artwork... even the band photos are well handled. The lyrics don't do much for me, but I'm not turned away by them: "Abysmal tongues blaspheme the stigma of the dead hand, Condemning those who drink the blood that drips from the crucifix of Golgotha, Abysmal tongues bless the standard of the strong, And command the bearer from the text divine..." This is about as good as I can imagine a death metal demo getting. I'd highly recommend picking this up, and I'd expect this band to get signed very soon. Nice work. (8/10)
Running time - 15:02, Tracks: 4
[Notable tracks: The Coming of Genocide, Second Death]
Ulcerate - http://ulcerate.orcon.net.nz

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