As I stated last month with my review of the Arranged Chaos album I do like the core scene in its various guises and I’d even go out of my way to catch these bands live as most are young, vibrant and have boundless energy on stage, even if the pit is full of young reprobates who think this is the only extreme music that exists. Also I stated that bands of this ilk must step away from the normal deathcore template and I think that the UK’s Martyr Defiled do exactly that with their debut album “Collision”.
The electronic intro titled “Enigma” has the dulcet tones of a slam riff blazing through it, before the compressed jackhammering double bass kick begins “Maelstrom”. The bass kick sound is a little clicky for my liking but is typical of the scene overall and favoured for some reason. The inhuman vocal bellows are matched by gurgles, screams and growls all equally distributed. The bass bombing is used to good effect and signal the start of the stomp riff on “An Act of Sedition” which has a quality high speed riff before the snare blast and bass landslide comes to your attention. The bands chop riff technique will be very familiar but is not completely filled with yawn value as Martyr Defiled use plenty of hooks to break things up and keep the aggression flowing. The leads are generally the high velocity flash by and what the hell was that style as the band focuses on bulldozing with battering slam riffs and thudding double bass intermittence.
“Masochrist”, good title, has some latter day Cannibal Corpse like riff patterns as the guitar sound is very close to that of Neaera. Strangely the band has adopted to name the next three songs as though they’re parts one to three of a trilogy and whilst they do flow into each other exceptionally well the tracks tend to stand alone in their own right and begin with “Zealot”, a formidably heavy song, which is a little clinical if being honest, but brutal all the same. The second part is titled “Excommunicate” and is a tad slower relatively speaking containing a more serene melody initially before the full force colossal slam riff breaks through. The gravel like guitar tone fits well with the third part “Collusion” which finishes the trilogy in decent style.
The thing I like about this album is it is unpretentious, and happy to bludgeon the listener with tons of beat downs, bulldozing drum work but still add injections of ingenuity with clever guitar hooks and leads that are melodic yet embed in each song neatly. Probably the best song, due to its creativity and going out on a limb, is “Archae”, an atmospheric conclusion that is laden with Cult Of Luna traits and is very different to the rest of the CD. The track bounces between eerie blackness, double bass gun fire and some excellent bass lines that made a change to hear in this scene. It will be interesting to see if the band plays this live as I think it would be a perfect opening track before the onslaught of the rest of their repertoire.
If you didn’t like deathcore before then this review won’t sell you on it either but if you’re into Ingested, All Shall Perish, Parkway Drive or any other deathcore act you want to mention, then check out the home grown slamming talent of Martyr Defiled.
http://www.myspace.com/martyrdefiled
