Labels: Dark Descent – Iron Bonehead
Review by: Alex Deller
Denver’s Spectral Voice kick this thing off with a track called ‘Peeled Veins’. Plenty occurs as they drag their way through nearly six minutes of Sentenced/Abhorrence-inspired murk, but while there are some interesting surprises musically (e.g. the wobbly dissonance that hits at the five-minute mark) the drab sound and monochromatic vocals lend things a slightly humdrum air. Phrenelith hail from Denmark and have the Undergang guy’s rotting gullet at their disposal. Their brand of death metal is more active and sprightly, writhing madly ‘neath untold layers of filth as it peels off tremolo-picked atmospherics, spidery solo parts and masses of grot-edged riffage. It makes for something that’s easy to engage with and instantly listenable, but at the same time it lacks the kind of killing edge that would make a full-length’s worth of stuff a joy to wade through.