Embalmer "13 Faces Of Death"

Tracklist: 01. Scourged Of Your Innocence 02. They Can Smell Our Blood 03. Beheaded Without A Drop Spilt 04. Limbs In The Grinder 05. Vengeance Through Homicide 06. Mutilation At The Altar 07. Horrific Distain 08. Rotten Body Fluids (2006) 09. There Was Blood Everywhere (2006) 10. The More Fuckers Dead, The Better 11. Into The Oven (2006) 12. Devil's Night 13. XIII Release: 2006 Genre: Death Metal URL: www.myspace.com/embalmerband Label: www.pathosproductions.com

After an endless period of time the band Embalmer strikes back to release their first full length album. It's a really funny concern that the band was now able to release a full length album after their founding in the year 1989 (not all bands are that quick, like other bands in the genre). Anyway we all know that music needs some time to be sophisticated, but that isn't applicable to Embalmer. I must confess that Embalmer's "Best of" compilation "There Was Blood Everywhere" had some good moments, but what the listener will get on "13 Faces Of Death" is so sensational like a cow eating grass on a willow. Seriously I was never a big fan of that band, but the vocals on their "Best of" compilation were really sick and uniquely. But what has happened to these vocals now??? Today singer Rod sounds a way more harmless than on the old stuff. Whatever the vocals are one of the best aspects on this album. Another point what I miss on this album is the morbid horror ambience which was a part of the old stuff. Today they try to create vainly a horror atmosphere with intros from horror slasher movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for example. This horror movie intro bullshit never takes any effect to me anymore, since Mortician did that on every fuckin' record. But sometimes you can hear the sick and morbid prevailing mood in some songs, which reminds me on Mortal Decay's "Forensic" album. But these moments are very rare. If you check out my favorite song of this record, called "Horrific Distain" you can hear this serial killer horror-feeling. Another positive point here is the better sound production, but that's no miracle after such a long waiting period. Nevertheless the sound production is compared to other bands really poor. But it would be incongruous, if you have a raw band like Embalmer with a sound production like the Beneath The Massacre releases. Well that's nearly everything which is new on this record. The band plays still raw, raunchy, simple, death metal with grindcore elements, which you can hear especially at the blast beat parts. For all the people which never had the "pleasure" to check out their music, they play death metal in the old school vein. So it's not another SICK slam death Devourment clone. You can compare the sound more with bands like Autopsy, Terrorizer or old Mortal Decay. Personally I can't get enthusiastic with "13 Faces Of Death" but sometimes it has some really cool moments, which are unfortunately to rare at all. The whole album thrashes along you, without leaving any tracks in your mind. Many fans of the band will be disappointed about this album, after such a long waiting time. To those freaks out there who want to check the band out, I would recommend the "There Was Blood Everywhere" album more than this here, because it's the strongest work in the history of the band in my opinion. I would like to mention a good aspect on "13 Faces Of Death" at the end and that's the great playtime about more than 43 minutes. Today such a playtime is really a exemption in the death metal scene. The cover artwork was unfortunately made by Devourment singer Mike Majewski. I have no idea why this man is such popular as a cover artist at the moment, because his artworks are scanty in my opinion. Again he can't convince with this artwork here. To sum up, fans of the band could like the new release, but personally this work here has underwhelmed and bored me, even though it had some nice positive moments.

Rating: 58 % | from Gore | Date: 10.05.07 | Time: 00:20	shut down