Happy New Year, motherpeckers! It’s ya boy Waldo, bet you thought you’d never see me again. And while it’s a new year and all, things seem “normal” or as normal as they have been for the past 10 months. So, I’m going to review some upcoming releases and let you know what is beaking cool and what is not.
Man, one of my favorite death metal acts, Asphyx is releasing their 9th or 10th full length Necroceros on Century Media. First of all, what is with that title? What is Necroceros? A dead rhinoceros? Who knows, who cares? What is important here is this record kicks some tail feathers. Proving that Martin van Drunen still has one of the best vocals in death metal, Necroceros has a more punk feel, on the more upbeat tracks anyway. There are plenty of riffs here, but also there are certainly no surprises. There are some doom tracks, some faster tracks, but they all sound distinctly like Asphyx. There are some “one-note” passages here, again mostly on the faster tracks, but the real gems here are the “doomier” tracks. This is not their best, but a solid death metal record nonetheless. 8 fucking Pecks.
Brazilian deathsters — and recent Decibel cover stars — Nervosa are releasing Perpetual Chaos on Napalm Records. Spoiler alert: I don’t absolutely HATE something on Napalm Records. The thing that some would note, is that this band is comprised of all females, and in this birdbrain’s opinion, that doesn’t matter at all. They CAN write a riff and they DO write some killer songs. This is mostly a thrashy death affair with some death/doom thrown in. The riffing here is hooky and really sticks with you. The one problem I have with this is the production does not lend to the aggressiveness of the songs. The overall sound of this really just has no “beak,” and if was a little meaner, (which I’m sure they are live) this would be a stellar release. 8 Fucking Pecks.
Probably the best German metal band to ever hit the scene, Accept hits us with a heavy metal slab called Too Mean To Die. I was expecting to HATE this, but actually it’s quite the contrary. This is how “heavy metal” should be. Everything works here, especially considering there’s only one original member (not surprising since they’ve been around for like 100 years.) This is traditional heavy metal. This is hard-hitting, up-tempo hard rock, and only really slows down in a ballad (which, of course, is here.) I mean, don’t get me wrong, this is no Restless and Wild, but man, this delivers. 8 Fucking Pecks.
Until next time… Waldo out!
