Overall, I had mixed reactions when I listened to this album, partly because the songs are pretty different. I guess "The Feeder" stands out because it's the most Celtic Frost-influenced song of the bunch (or so I think). However, the death metal tracks were pretty fun if unoriginal. I personally like the tunefulness of "The Grand Denial" and "Death: The Only Immortal" much less than the crushing "frosty" ugliness of Asphyx's most other epics, such as "Minefield" and "Initiation into the Ossuary". One of the things I liked about Asphyx was the noticeable Hellhammer/Celtic Frost influence in the doomy songs, but there isn't that much Celtic Frost on Incoming Death, and, like I said before, the doomy songs are pretty melodic. There are some decent thrashy death metal riffs, some decent doomy riffs, a couple melodic leads and that about does it. The guitarwork hasn't improved a lot, neither from a technical point of view nor in my opinion. The bass is almost inaudible, which is also typical for Asphyx (and most modern metal, really) so there's not much else to say about it. Martin van Drunen gives an awful (in a bad way) vocal performance, his rasping on Incoming Death is relatively powerless, pretty monotonous and can get boring towards the end of the album. The weak drumming has always been my main gripe with Asphyx, but I kind of got used to it. Tormentor's drumming is a bit more technical than that of Bob Bagchus (not that it means a lot), but it's still very underwhelming compared to his drumming in Desaster. The individual performances on this album are typical for Asphyx as well. There's also quite a lot of thrash influence in the faster songs, especially on "Wildland Fire", which is obviously heavily influenced by classic Slayer. "Subterra Incognita" is the only slow song on Incoming Death that isn't very melodic, but then it's this kind of death/doom metal which is basically slow death metal with little doom influence, and I can't stand that sort of thing. The doomy songs have quite a lot of melody, especially "The Grand Denial", and "Wardroid" is basically a catchy doom metal track with a buzzy guitar tone and van Drunen's vocals. Especially the two first songs remind me of Bolt Thrower, and the title track brings to mind Dismember and Unleashed's fast and punkish songs. It's got more doomy songs and has a lot of influence from Swedish death metal (not only in the guitar tone) and Bolt Thrower. However, this album doesn't sound like a carbon copy of any of the band's past efforts. Musically, Incoming Death is a lot like any other Asphyx album, that is, no-frills old-school death metal with some doom influence, a couple of similarly primitive death/doom metal songs and van Drunen's trademark disgusting vocals that sound like he's being asphyxiated (pun definitely intended). In my opinion, this kind of production fits Asphyx's brand of death metal much better than the wall of sound on Deathhammer. So, production-wise, Incoming Death sounds a lot like Asphyx's pre-reunion albums, but with a crunchy guitar tone that's more reminiscent of the infamous HM-2 "Swedish buzzsaw" tone. But I prefer a lack of production to a lack of dynamic range, so that's just my opinion. The music on these albums was pretty good, but the pointlessly loud, brickwalled and digitally sterile production (especially on Deathhammer) just ruined everything for me. The Brutal Way and Deathhammer, I wasn't very excited when I found out that Asphyx is going to release a new album.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |