BEHEADED - Beast Incarnate
February 26, 2017, 7 years ago
(Unique Leader)
Incredibly solid album here from Malta death metal crew Beheaded, who here on their fifth album lay down solid brutal death metal with a slight technical edge. The secret to their success on Beast Incarnate is that it never gets too tech, it never gets too brutal-DM, and the production isn’t jarring like it normally is for bands of this ilk, everything sounding punchy in a slightly raw, kinda Incantation- and Immolation-loving way. Speaking of those bands, some songs here, such as killer mid-album back-to-back cuts “Reign Of The Headless King” and “The Black Death”, do indeed go down to the sewers where those bands live; when Beheaded drop to a sludgier tempo, it’s a powerful sound, one that I wish the band would utilize more often.
Then again, lots of bands doing the Immolation thing these days; Beheaded are smart in a way to not dwell on that sound too much, drowning the listener in sludge but then smacking them upside the head with quick bursts of wake-up! DM that sound perfect sandwiched in between the slower sounds here. Good call making this one on the shorter side too; this 41-minute album is over before I can even find Malta on a map, inviting me back for repeat listens, which will most certainly happen.