By now it is safe to say that the old-school Death Metal revival proved to be nothing short of a mere trend. It is here to stay and what is even more exciting is that we are witnessing a period where the bands of this wave are starting to evolve and come to find their identities more and more with each release. One of the forerunners of the cabal is Undeath from Rochester, NY.
What I mostly love about them is that not only do they not hide their geeky side in their lyrics that paint pictures of battle scenes from Warhammer to all sorts of grotesque Souls-like bosses but also show a genuine love of the genre’s history without getting lost in nostalgia for their music. Moreover, the sloppily painted yet on point humorous album artworks indicate the band deeply cares about the fun factor of the genre.</b>
I don’t know about you but in my mind I tend to put extreme metal into two main categories: cold and warm. It comes way before thinking of traditional genre classifications and it is something way more of a primal relationship. This is obviously largely due to production choices of records and also related to the performances of band members. There are rare cases of bands making the jump between the two realms, like when Bloodbath changed their vocalist from Mikael Åkerfeldt to Peter Tägtgren in their sophomore release. Examples of such temperature changes occurring within the same album are even fewer and Undeath delivers this with a great level of control on their new full-length. This gives an incredible dynamic to the record. Things start business as usual with the opener “Dead From Beyond” and things escalate on the title track “More Insane”. It is one of the best songs the band has ever written and it undoubtably will become a march of moshpits.
The track “Brandish the Blade” holds new things for the band where they follow a more epic approach. A fantasy battle anthem that welcomes the listener with hooks supported by melodic tremolos and blastbeats, topped with a delicious epic trad-metal solo really setting the mood of getting lost among thousands of plate mailed death knights and leather clad barbarians on a blood-soaked plain. “Sutured for War” also gives the same feel musically, making these two tracks the melodic blackened Metal parts of the record somewhat akin to The Black Dahlia Murder, which saturates ”More Insane” with warmth as opposed to the band’s classic punishing, angular cold sound; ”Bounty Hunter” or ”Wailing Cadavers” being great examples here.
The final boss, “Bones Clattering in the Cave” is the stomper of the record, a highly dynamic track relentlessly slapping the listener from left and right. It is more of a dexterous Beholder with hundreds of tentacles rather than a giant with a maul therefore it actually doesn’t deliver the slower, majestic calmth that we come to expect from a classic closer. And thus More Insane doesn’t end on a final closure in tone but rather ends in a Ouroboros-esque way that makes you want to re-start the album.
To be frank, after fully listening to the record for the first time, I was slightly meh towards it, most likely due to the newcomer bits of playful melodic trad-metal touches sprinkled onto some tracks. However, knowing that these are exactly the types of records that I come to love and form a bond with over time, after a couple more spins I grew fond of the steps of evolution in Undeath’s music. It is hard to imagine someone who loves pure Death Metal but not blasting this one with joy – especially after giving it some time. Along with 200 Stab Wounds’ new album, More Insane is one of the best that came out this year among its class of meat and potatoes type of aggression. Do not skip on this monstrosity of a war machine.
