Asphyx - Death... The Brutal Way

November 11, 2009

Reviewer: Jesse

The return of Asphyx might have had a lot of people worrying and wondering if it would just be another band coming back to life to do the tour-circuit thing and release a mediocre album to justify it, but not so fast.  The touring certainly came to fruition, but Death… The Brutal Way is anything but mediocre and is in fact a beast of a death metal album.

Death metal at its core, naturally, but Death… The Brutal Way incorporates a heaping pile of heavy doominess throughout.  Many of the songs slow down and churn out punishing riffs you’d find on many death/doom albums, but they're never so slow that they lose focus.  Instead, they open the door for some very nice leads to sweep over the song, particularly on “The Herald.”  One thing that goes perfectly with any doom sequence in metal is a truly anguished vocal style and Martin Van Drunen’s style fits like a glove in that sense.  A truly unique and instantly identifiable voice, Van Drunen adds a personality to Asphyx that you couldn’t duplicate if you tried.

Of course, not every song has the doom gene.  The album explodes right off the bat with “Scorbutics,” which is one of the more bad ass songs I’ll hear all year, and one of the best aspects to it is its simple riff structure.  There isn’t really a single original idea in the song, but it’s pulled off so well and organized to such perfection that you’d swear you had never heard anything like it.  The title track is another upbeat song, and for Asphyx, is quite relentless, which means it’s about normal pace for everyone else.

On Death… The Brutal Way, groove is the name of the game. What I said about the unoriginal style of “Scorbutics” is mostly true of the entire album, but the way in which the riffs flow together so heavily and fluidly would make you forget and not notice just how simplistic of an album this is.  Imagine a giant jigsaw puzzle made up of classic and standard old school death metal riffs serving as the pieces.  Stubborn bands are going to want to force certain pieces together knowing fully well that they don’t fit and will try to pawn it off as creative or progressive.  Asphyx looks down at the puzzle, sees a painting and puts the pieces where they’re supposed to go.  The finished product sounds exactly like everyone thought it would, but since no one bothered to actually do it, they’re all shocked at how good it ended up sounding.  Add to that a crystal-clear production job and the singing of Martin Van Drunen and you have a classic death/doom metal album being served up with one of the most unmistakably unique voices in extreme metal. 

This is no triumph in creativity, only a reminder of how difficult a lot of bands out there are making something that should be pretty easy.  Also, they get bonus points for not having an intro either.  Asphyx wins.

Release Date: June 22nd, 2009
Label: Century Media Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Scorbutics
2.  The Herald
3.  Bloodswamp
4.  Death The Brutal Way
5.  Asphyx II
      (They Died As They Marched)
6.  Eisenbahnmörser
7.  Black Hole Storm
8.  Riflegun Redeemer
9.  Cape Horn06:53
10.  The Saw, The Torture,
        The Pain

Total playing time:  49:27

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