Description

Black vinyl with lyric insert

Matt Harvey may be my new favorite person in Death metal. Hes unwilling to betray the utter Carcassness of Exhumed, instead using different friends to collaborate with when he wants to explore a subgenre that doesn’t lend itself to melodic Deathgrind. After his stint playing for the Death to All tour as the Godfather of Death metal Chuck Schuldiner, he (like me) fell back in love with Chuck and all of Death’s work, mostly the early stuff. That’s not saying latter era Death is not incredible, it is, and it’s own mystery of progressive Death deserves a similar homage band. But the work in Gruesome is the culmination of the first three (maybe four) Death albums in a blender on repeat for the entire running time. Like Leprosy with much better production, Savage Land makes itself heavy just by riff choice alone. Nothing uplifting. Nothing beautiful (in the classic sense). Nothing that isn’t immediately recognized as 100% Death freaking metal! Chuck’s lyrics and vocals are better than this (Harvey’s screams of tortured anguish are excellent though) but these songs easily could’ve made the cut on any of the first three Death albums. We keep wondering why there hasn’t been another Death to come along yet and the answer is simple, no one looks at their guitar and music the way Chuck did, and no one will. The man was singular. This is absolutely the next best thing. And with no other competition, I’ll buy whatever they decide to put out. Look at that artwork too! A great trip down the memory lane

Track listing:
1. Savage Land
2. Trapped In Hell
3. Demonized
4. Hideous
5. Gangrene
6. Closed Casket
7. Psychic Twin
8. Gruesome