Death Metal – Alive and Kicking in 2013

With new albums from some of Death Metals finest, it’s hard to believe death metal ever died. Let’s begin with Chris Reifert’s horror themed Autopsy and their new album The Headless Ritual. It is incredible that Chris pulls double duty drumming and vocals, especially with such a fast paced band. The album has some great riffs throughout, but what makes this album stand out for me is the fact that they go from break neck speeds to full on doom metal. An example of how they do this is in the album opener “Slaughter at Beast House”. About half way through the song it slows down to an almost sludge pace and some incredible doom vocals follow, only to pick up speed again towards the end. With song titles like; “Coffin Crawlers” and “When Hammer Meets Bone” you know they mean business. I was not too familiar with the band prior to this album, but once I started to look them up, I was excited to find out Chris was the drummer for Death’s Scream Bloody Gore album and you can tell he brought his Death influences with him when he left the band. The album is great and I would suggest it to any death or doom metal fan.

Another great death metal released this year was Immolation’s Kingdom of Conspiracy. The album is straight up 10 songs of unrelenting, unforgiving death metal. The album itself is a political album which singer/bass player Ross Dolan is quoted from a Metal Blade interview stating the theme is “ about real conspiracies, it’s about people conspiring every day to do very bad things, evil things in the name of greed and self-preservation”  Finer, Sam (14 May 2013). "Immolation (Ross Dolan) Interview". Metal Blast. Retrieved 2 June 2013.

Now to move onto one of my personal favorite death metal albums of 2013; Suffocation’s Pinnacle of Bedlam. No matter how many times you listen to this album, you cannot escape the raw energy and intensity. I like how the guitar sound varies throughout and even how the beginning of “Sullen Day” starts off a bit slower, and then kicks in. Frank Mullen’s vocals are just brutal and Terrance Hobbs just nails the guitar parts. The version I bought came with a short making of DVD which showed the album making process and what went into getting this album to where it needed to be. It was a great addition to an already great album. As brutal as this album is, the slow breakdowns add character to the songs that just top off the album. Get this album; it will defiantly be worth it.