Formed out of Denmark, these chaps have a little bit of well bred death metal history amongst them. Brandishing their love of all things death metal on their sleeves in this release, like what the promo material states, would appeal to fans of Morbid Angel and to me also Hate Eternal, Aeon (Swe) and some aspects of the more brutal spectrum of death metal.
The albums pulls no punches, right from the opening track ‘Architectural Infinity’. There is a strong deep death growl, immense drumming patterns without the need to blast beat and a crunchy rhythm that just gets more infectious as you listen further. Lots of loose notes power their way through to some embattled arrangement ideas that flow with particular ease. The harmonies of sweeping riffs prior to a cool solo is something to be reckoned with, usually you get a massive attack of speed and wah wah, wee wee etc…not so the case here, these solos are thoughtful and fit the track. In simpler terms, they are a part of the songs rather than an overbearing addition to a death metal track as heard on some albums. I do like these vocals too, guttural but yet clear, no need to pig squeal. ‘Flesh Recycled’ does have me thinking of a Deicide arrangement, with its powerful breaking sections, utter speed and simple death metal prowess thrown in for good measure with the preferred variation of drum timing. ‘The Prodigal Sun’ enters a dimension of utter battering with some acoustic pieces, and plenty of time signature changes to keep the listener happy. This is quite an intense number and simply a pleasure to listen too, hats off for the arrangement, probably my favourite of the album, if you discount ‘Deliverance’ too, but then this is also a cracking death metal masterpiece.
A similar pattern of greatness continues throughout the album leading to play after play of the disc, whilst I don’t think there is much to make The Cleansing any different to the already overpopulated traditional death metal genre (with modern guitar harmonic sweeps added that is!), it is a case of equals compared to the big boys out there. Had this been a major release by one of the largest bands, I am sure thee would be a huge buzz around this release. One hopes that this will be the case once you folks take note of this band. ‘Poisoned Legacy’ is a fat, chunky riffing death shake fused together with monolithic song writing capability, a product of their vast experience.
http://www.thecleansing.net/
http://www.myspace.com/thecleansingnet
http://www.deepsend.com/
