RESURGENCY / DESOLATOR - Split CD review

RESURGENCY / DESOLATOR - Split CD
Hellthrasher Productions
Genre: Death Metal
Rating: 4/5

I've been inundated with so much death metal this year sent in for review that I'm starting to talk to people in a death metal voice. I'm not referring to the annoying people who show up at your front door on Sundays either. I'll answer the phone that way and people think I have a cold. Anyway the reason for so much death metal coming in for reviews is because of a whole new generation of maniacs across the globe rediscovering the genre's early days of gory brutality. Over the years the original genre sound and style has been white washed away in lieu of more melodic, technical and progressive theatrics. You can call it a revival or a revolt but either way you won't hear any complaints from me. Along with the bands you have all of these sick labels coming out promoting OSDM (Old School Death Metal) like sadists spreading the plague virus by vomiting in your lap. Hellthrasher Productions from Poland are the latest purveyors in death metal terror. This release of theirs is a split from two new European DM acts.

First off we have RESURGENCY a five piece act from Greece who spread more despair and misery than their nation's newspapers do when reporting on their economic climate. Strangely enough they remind me of VADER which I don't have a problem with since I consider them one of the greatest DM acts to ever walk the face of the Earth. You listen to the opener “Where Despair Dominates” or even their third cut “Psychosis” and you're gonna be thinking that's Wiwczarek's vocals and riffs all the way. Whether RESURGENCY are paying homage or it's just irony that they're on a Polish label is up for a guess. Their sound is even of old demo quality as if this came out twenty years ago. Take that as a compliment from someone whose OSDM original demo collection is basically unplayable. Yeah those cassettes weren't made to last. RESURGENCY bludgeon you down with three mid paced cuts and an instrumental. Afterwards your shoulders will get that Atlas feeling which is exactly what VADER does.

The second band on here, DESOLATOR, hail from (big surprise) Stockholm, Sweden. I've got an old friend from there and according to him it's like the old days again where you can't swing a dead cat in a bar without hitting a musician in a death metal band. It could be worse because he could live here in the states and he'd be complaining about hipster posers. Anyway DESOLATOR are one new band doing the OSSDM (Old School Swedish Death Metal) thing that I haven't heard of. The biggest surprise here is that these guys sound fairly clean compared to their forefathers who created that filthy guitar crunch. It kinda reminds you of one of those really poor demos where the drums are barely audible. Sounds like they put too much emphasis on the vocals. Had them over to Dan Swano and they'd change for the better. Just like the first band there's four cuts from DESOLATOR plus an intro. Both of these bands will probably have a full length out sometime next year so this was an all around good sampling of death to come.

Label: http://www.hellthrasher.com/

RESURGENCY's Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/resurgency

DESOLATOR's Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/desolatorswe