Death Metal Briefs: Reanimations of 2013

Undeath

In the music industry, death is not always final, especially when a reissue or compilation is such a low-risk endeavor for any label that needs to make a few bucks to keep the lights on. Here are three such releases that you may not have noticed.

Pathogen: Miscreants of Bloodlusting Aberrations (2010)
3 out of 5 stars

Pathogen are out of the Philippines, and their 2010 album was reissued this year by Dunkelheit for some reason. While it's quite competent, I can't think of a more run-of-the-mill death metal album than this one. It is almost purely Floridian death metal as it existed 20 years ago (mostly Morbid Angel), with no distinguishable features worth mentioning. Undoubtedly they are a cool live band, and they're no strangers to the whammy bar, but there are more interesting death metal albums released every week.




Perversion: Pillars of the Enlightened (2012)
3 out of 5 stars

Originally self-released in 2012, the debut full-length from the UAE's Perversion was reissued on Blast Head Records, a tiny Canadian label just getting off the ground. Like Pathogen, it's an extremely competent, but completely run-of-the-mill death metal album. This one is modern death metal with more "br00tal" everything and popcorn-popper drums. Extremely competent, even good death metal just isn't enough anymore, even if you are from an exotic location.



Swazafix: Anthems of Apostasy (2013)
4 out of 5 stars

Ironically, the Dutch album out of these three is the only one that's not run-of-the-mill. (Give it a little bit. You'll figure out why that's ironic.) Anthems of Apostasy compiles the entire output of Dutch death-dealers Swazafix, i.e., a '91 demo and a '92 demo, courtesy of Vic Records. The band's only claim to fame could be the late Theo Loomans (an occasional member of Asphyx), but there was clearly potential here. The band bridges the gap between Death and Pestilence as they existed at the time: Van Drunen-Schuldiner hybrid vocals, Leprosy's death metal abandon, a tinge of Spheres weirdness.


(This embed is not from the compilation, but you get the idea.)