Hmmm, I'm not sure I understand why this album exists, as it's basically a sampler of sorts. The first three tracks are new and will appear on the band's next full-length, and the other tracks are remastered songs selected from the band's three past albums. It's not bad, but is it really necessary for anyone who's already familiar with the band - as I assume most of their fans are? I myself have only heard a handful of tracks from these guys in the past, so it's interesting to hear songs from all of the band's phases over the years, but whatever. You get the three new cuts, three from "Sermon of Mockery", two from "Hatred and Disgust", and three from "System of the Animal". All in all it's fairly straightforward brutal death metal that combines speed with some slower rhythms and definitely comes off as more influenced by thrash and classic early-90's death metal. The vocals are generally midrange screams with occasional forays into slightly higher or lower territory, possessing an almost hardcore-ish sort of delivery to some of the vocal patterns and the general approach. The newer tracks are definitely more fluid and energetic, not to mention less groovy during the slower moments, so the band has progressed for the better. Obviously the recordings vary with each set of songs, and the new tracks are better in that regard as well. Most of the older songs are a little rough and unbalanced, with varying degrees of clarity. Oftentimes the drums get too loud and the guitars too muddy, etc. The playing is fairly consistent, though. But the newest songs are clearer and evenly mixed in my opinion. I'd like to hear more bass and thicker guitars in a way, but what can you do? Visually this thing ain't that hot. The cover art is a stupid, childish painting of a typical image of a bunch of demons battling one another and raping a bunch of nude women (all of which repeats itself no less than three times through the entire layout), you get lyrics for the handful of new tracks and thanks lists, the band logo is painfully pixilated and sloppy, etc. And what's up with the skinny dude going shirtless in the band photo trying to look all tough? Not happenin', man. Shirt and shoes required at all times. In the end, I do like some of these songs a lot, and find them to be better than average for this style in large part, but as a whole this is an uninteresting disc that makes little sense to me. I'd be curious to hear their forthcoming record, but as a collection there's not all that much to offer with this one.
[Crash]
Running time - 35:59, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Life Long Hate, Ode to Brinn, Bludgeoned by Deformity]
Pyrexia - http://www.pyrexia.us
