2024 Iron Blood and Death Corporation (CD)
ironbloodanddeath.bandcamp.com
Every once in a while I happen across a record that immediately catches my attention and gets me really excited. Usually the first thing I do is text Dan Gates (of TON infamy) and let him know there's a real motherfucker of an album he has to check out! The second thing I do is let it play several times through. That's exactly what happened with this record.
As it opened, I had a feeling I was in for something good when the intro contained an almost Lucio Fulci-style horror synth composition, and ended with some sinister monks singing. The first thing that struck me as the first true song started was that this is death metal with the energy of a hardcore band in many ways. It's simpler, aggressive, angry, and pounding with straight-ahead drumming, much like a band like Merauder or All Out War is (show me a person that doesn't like Master Killer and I'll show you someone who doesn't like metal all the way top their core. Now, I'm not saying that this is even part of their set of influences, but I hear it, and I love it. Death metal evolved from heavy metal and hardcore punk, so it makes perfect sense to me. At some point the evolution wraps back around to full circle.
The riffs and structure made me think of the Merauder comparison, and it's also valid to bring up the names of Massacre, Entombed, and Cianide. This band fits right in among these, as being similar in attack and performance. This is pure, ancient death metal played the right way, with a punk sensibility (in the same way that Nunslaughter has a punk sensibility) that makes the songs bleed energy, power, and movement. The solos scattered about are excellent, morbid affairs full of sick melody and evil harmony. There's even a pronounced d-beat punk influence on the track "Devoured," and since I love anarcho-punk and d-beat as well, this was a welcome sound.
The vocals vaguely remind me of Demolition from California's demo, in some ways, especially when they're layered and reverb-drenched. At other times he reminds me a little of the singer from Dismember. Don't take this to mean that he is a derivative singer - far from it. He's doing things his own way, with personality, charisma, and style! It's a strong performance, as it is from the rest of the band. Structurally, a lot of their songs have a thrash breakdown that really amp up the heaviness and aggression, and I could see these parts working extremely well live, creating violent pits or aggressive headbanging against the stage!
This album is a high water mark of last year's death metal releases, and I put it right up there with the best stuff that I've heard. I'm still working my way through about 600 different records to review, but Stabwound has created a minor masterpiece here and I'm very interested to see what the next album brings. If this album is any indication, they'll deliver a real heavy bastard.
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