TOMBSTALKER - Black Crusades
December 16, 2015, 8 years ago
(Shadow Kingdom)
Colour me a bit surprised here to find death metal of this level on Shadow Kingdom, a label I definitely associate more with trad metal sounds in my metal head. But Kentucky's Tombstalker are definitely tried and true death metal of a very '91 vintage, the band only stopping their sewer-grade Swedish death worship (Entombed, Grave) to... nope, no stopping that, ever, the chainsaw guitar in full effect, the beats somewhere between a gallop and a d-beat, the sounds almost entirely wholly predictable and comforting.
I say “almost” because there are anomalies, such as the title track, which lasts for 8:30 and contains a totally frantic/weird/awesome solo/lead break that just goes on and on, in the best of ways. “Soul Eater” follows that tune up with a bit of a melodic edge, and it works okay to wake the listener up a bit, but Tombstalker shine most when they're going ugly and heavy (although when that tune busts into a raging d-beat two-step, look out). And closing cut “Chaos Enthroned”, the other eight-plus-minute number on here, gets sludgey and ultra-heavy to end things off, a cool way to end a solid DM disc.
