March 5, 2010

Reviewer: Jesse

Another newcomer to the death metal scene is England’s Sectioned, and while “old school” is the theme once again, Sectioned pull it off better than most of their fledgling peers do.  Granted, the members of Sectioned have been in the scene for several years now, so they aren’t as green as their discography would imply, and one listen to their debut album Purulent Reality would prove that as well, as this is not the work of amateurs.  In fact, this is old school in a way that doesn’t hide behind that label trying to pawn off sloppiness and bad production as an unavoidable part of the sound.

Purulent Reality is one of the few death metal albums being released these days that actually takes you back to the early nineties when death metal bands wrote semi-catchy and heavy as hell songs.  Right around when the production got a little better and took the genre out of the Scream Bloody Gore sound, but not extremely clean either.  Still a little gritty, but clean enough to let in that ever-so-valuable personality.  Purulent Reality is full of incredibly thick and meaty riffs that just devastate at a mid-tempo pace, with plenty of melodic segments sprinkled throughout.  “My Love of Decay” and “Loneliest Man” are two perfect examples of mid-nineties death metal done right.  The influences are abundant and very easy to spot.  I hear heaping amounts of very early Hypocrisy and Vehemence along with Death’s Human and even early Sinister.  I’m not normally one to name-drop like that, but it’s one thing to announce your own influences in press releases and another thing entirely to actually back it up.  Of course, these are my own comparisons and not theirs, but I’m speaking in general terms when bands only vaguely resemble their lists of influential bands.

If you’re a fan of early nineties’ US and European death metal, then you should put Sectioned on your list of bands to look into soon.  Hopefully more people will pay attention so we can see what the next installment from these guys will be.

Release Date: March 9th, 2010
Label: Paragon Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  A Lonely Grasp of Winter
2.  My Love of Decay
3.  Loneliest Man
4.  Behind My Eyes
5.  Mirrors
6.  Village of the Sun
7.  Purulent Reality (Outro)

Total playing time:  43:07

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Sectioned - Purulent Reality