Asphyx - Necroceros (2021)

Along with Bolt Thrower, Asphyx certainly holds claim to its simple, churning death metal style, and obviously it's one that has some legs to it, since you're hearing new bands like Chainsword of Frozen Soul come along and do their best to impersonate it, often to great underground success. Necroceros doesn't really distance itself from the three albums before it, the entirety of the later Martin van Drunen tenure with the band, to the point that songs could hop between them without anyone noticing other than marginal details in the production, but it doesn't really need to. They've got a sound set in stone, their fanbase doesn't really want anything else, and I absolutely can relate to that dependability, since a large number of bands I listen to practice the same risk-averse approach to their material.

I'm not saying the Dutchmen are writing pop songs here, obviously, there's nothing safe about the loud, slow grinding bombast of these tunes, as it wasn't safe ever during their career, or on the three records from the very similar Hail of Bullets that Martin and Paul were also involved in. But having already been a fan of those three records, and some of the earlier Asphyx, I feel a constant craving for the band to try a little more on for size. Keep the grisly vocals, keep the enormous tones in the guitars, and the pudgy, distorted bass-lies, but screw around more with rhythmic dynamics, build some riffs that are a little beyond these assembly line structures that they've been cranking out for 30 years. I can only dream how cool it would be for some Slayer-like evil harmonies to bust out among these meatier rhythm guitars, or perhaps just imbue the basic chords with some more thrashing, slightly more involved sequences, just to change things up, striking the perfect balance like the German band Scalpture does on their amazing Feldwarts (very similar style also).

But much of Necroceros just sounds like what I've heard before. Bruising, efficient, loyal and maybe even stubborn to a fault. A couple moments stick out, like the majestic embedded melody of the chords that set up "Knights Templar Stand" and rocking "Yield or Die", or the slowly sinking wreckage of "In Blazing Oceans" with its little chugged triplets that don't always go where you predict, and end up a little warmer than you might be used to. The Dutchmen tip-toe into new waters where it might befit them to take a more direct plunge. Again, Necroceros is perfectly adequate on its own, because it will always have that massive wall of production to fall back against, which can cause even the most minimalistic riff progressions to explode ears, but it's simply never as great as it could be. Having said that, I'd pick it over a Deathhammer of Incoming Death, and anyone digging those records, or For Victory, or Crypt of Ice, or any of Memoriam's stuff, will feast on the fleshy guitars, but I'm still yearning days when I won't just consider Asphyx 'good', but mandatory. 

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.asphyx.nl/

Asphyx - Incoming Death (2016)

Three albums in to Asphyx's reunion with Martin van Drunen, and I feel like you know what you're getting to get when you spin one of these things. Crushing, basic death metal, straight from the early 90s in craftmanship, but blessed with the advancements in production that can make it sound absolutely enormous by comparison to so many of those seminal works. The Dutch act has long maintained a very workmanlike build to its material, the riffs don't really sound very evil or atmospheric or even that catchy, but they bring the brawn rather than the brains, and for that reason they're always listenable, even if I couldn't pick many of these tracks out from a selection of those on the surrounding albums. Another band that, like a Bolt Thrower or Obituary, are quite content following the same path without ever distracting themselves with some attractive side-trails.

Incoming Death is almost as predictably named as it sounds, but if I'm being truthful, there is no amount of redundancy that can't be overcome by how Martin's gruesome grunts interact with the mix on these guitars. He sounds just as fleshy as they do, and he's always been one of the more distinct throats in the field, even though my preference will always be for his presence on the first two Pestilence albums, because the music there was absolutely fucking perfect to support him. Asphyx doesn't always seem like they take a long time to put the material together, just stringing together a standard supply of chords and letting the enormity of that guitar tone do the rest of the work. You do get a variety, from the grindier sway of tremolo picked riffs in "Candiru" and "It Came from the Skies" to the more measured, doomed gait of "The Grand Denial" or snail-like grooves of "Subterra Incognita", and that goes a long way to curb off any monotony, especially with the nice occasional lead or melodic guitar line for an added dimension to the atmosphere.

The mix here, from a little-known Swedish musician and producer named 'Dan', is exactly what the material needs to fatten out its simplicity, so that the tones can district from the lack of technicality or complexity in any of the riff patterns. The bass throbs with a thick distortion, allowing it to pop out occasionally from the tank-tread weight of the rhythm guitars, and the drums keep things pretty simple, but rock out just right against the crush. The songs can get a little boring if you're expecting any surprises, but they do happen once in awhile, like the piano finale to "Subterra Incognita", or that HUGE bass groove in the depths of "Death: The Only Immortal". Overall, Incoming Death is another win for the band, though it not all that much more memorable than the two albums before it, Death...the Brutal Way and Deathhammer; marginally better recording, but the tunes don't dazzle beyond the superficiality of their massive crunch.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

https://www.asphyx.nl/

Asphyx - Deathhammer (2012)

Deathhammer was one of those records which exploded upon arrival, seemingly all that anyone could talk about for a couple weeks, and seemed to reap in a lot of incredibly positive press. Occasionally mislabeled a 'comeback effort' (people must short motherfucking memories), it was the natural successor to Death...the Brutal Way and saw Asphyx once again dowse a pretty average set of riffs into a raw, phenomenal production aesthetic that dramatically increased their mileage. It's not a far cry in style from either of the first two Hail of Bullets records, to the point that I feel like the shared members must get confused when putting together their respective set lists, but where the riff progressions and grim, war-themed concept there really seem to come together for me, Deathhammer felt like it suffered from a bit of 'leftover syndrome'. That's not to say it's an album entirely without merit, because there's a genuine, hellish energy running through a lot of the track list that pairs up well with some of the more concise tunes, but considering how much buzz this had when it dropped like a bomb, I expected a whole lot fucking more...

Instead, it's basically a set of fairly traceable, predictable riffs descended not only back to the Dutchmen's own cult classics (Last One on Earth, or the unsung On the Wings of Inferno), but also Bolt Thrower muscle, early Death-like tremolo passages, Hellhammer chords and grooves, and there were even a few riff and vocal patterns (like "Deathhammer") where I kept thinking back to classic Slayer. There are a lot of samey songs throughout the album, in particular the faster 2-3 minute pieces, but these are fairly well contrasted to the slower, drudging chug or doom/groove fests such as "Der Landser", or "Minefield" which seemed like a mashup of Asphyx with Celtic Frost at points. Alas, I found the general rule here was that the slower the riffs moved, the more bare bones and boring they would become, to the point that several are really just 1-2 chords or notes bouncing around in repetition. Clever, but you're not the fucking Ramones! As a result, every time I felt energetically charged by this material, it would prove all too short lived...I'm fine with variation, I just wish that all the content, faster and slower, involved more creative rhythms and note choices which could keep me guessing. This is an effort that honestly seems to get by largely for the fact that the production of the guitars and vocals sounds monstrous, and that's a trend I've noticed a lot lately with many of the umpteeth-generation Swedish-sounding bands and Autopsy/Incantation hybrids...the 'sound' trumps the 'structure'.

But, hey, that's what a lot of death metal fans want, and it's not always a bad thing. An audience once hooked on expansion, experimentation and extremity seems to have settled into a desire for the familiar and inoffensive. I'm not entirely exempting myself from this, since I'm pretty evenly into both the old school and tech/death sides of the death metal medium, but I've always been about the songs first, and no matter how formulaic or 'sure bet' these entries to the Asphyx legacy were, I simply could not be bothered to remember them a mere 2-3 weeks after the album came out. Perhaps I was a little burned out after Of Frost and War, Death...the Brutal Way and On Divine Winds had come out, and this album didn't offer much more than reruns, but even listening to it now with a fresher perspective hasn't aged it very well. Tunes like "Into the Timewaste", "Deathhammer" and "The Flood" are all pretty decent, and I can't help but enjoy that fulfilling guitar tone, the vice-like potency of Bob Bagchus' drums, or even the simplicity about which they conceive a few of the riffs; but I always felt it lacked some of the emotive, crushing power of other recent recordings by some of the same members, and there were many times I wished the notes had just gone off in some other direction than taking the pretty bland, ordinary route that they do...

I don't wanna be too hard on Deathhammer, because it is indeed a successful enough record due to the production and presentation. I certainly like this as much as The Rack, or either of their mid-90s albums with the fragmented lineups. Most of the lyrics are solid, except "Deathhammer" itself which is a pretty typical 'get off my lawn' sort of thing where, you know, only the TRUE death metal bands rule and everyone else is a poseur just obviously in it for the money! That's right, dudes, tune in to next season of MTV Cribs where we'll get to tour the mansions and estates of chart-busting brutal death metal bands... A few of the lyrical themes feel a little redundant with the more consistently conceptual wartime accounts of Hail of Bullets, but Asphyx did it earlier. I also thought this was one of, if not the best cover arts Axel Hermann did for this band, and the Dan Swanö mix does a superb job at capturing that raw, visceral thrill of Last One on Earth and catapulting it forward 20 years, which, when you think of it, really seems to be the point of the whole album. Yet, there are some pretty 'meh' tunes throughout, in particular the pair from the Reign of the Brute EP fuckery early in the year, and this is just nowhere near the level I would have expected from the early excitement I experienced surrounding its release. It's great to hear a veteran metal band like this forging on in the new century, but I'd prefer they tried to surpass themselves rather than just play 'catch up' to where they already were at a younger age, and this doesn't quite do that beyond the advancements and availability in/of studio wizardry.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (if you won't face death we will)

http://www.asphyx.nl/

Asphyx - On the Wings of Inferno (2000)

On the Wings of Inferno is probably the album I wanted The Rack to be way back in 1991. I say that with a particular bias, I know, since I was/remain such a massive advocate for Martin van Drunen's two Pestilence records, but this would be the record that most reminded me of his alma mater in its capacity for crushing, evil sounding death metal riffs that took my imagination straight back to favorites like Consuming Impulse or Death's Leprosy. Here's the twist: Martin van Drunen was nowhere to be found, and this was actually a reunion of Eric Daniels and Bob Bagchus, or rather the Soulburn lineup deciding to put that project on hold after one full-length and reform as Asphyx. Joining the pair is bassist/vocalist Wannes Gubbels, and apart from the strong riff selection, his van Drunen 'impression' is critical in why I so enjoyed this effort.

Of course, I don't wanna go so far to dub this a 'knockoff' of Consuming Impulse. The person writing the riffs is obviously not Patrick Mameli. It still retains some of that proclivity for slower, death/doom passages, and Gubbels is not 100% a doppelganger for Martin, or Loomans, for that matter. But he certainly uses the same sort of gruesome intonation, with wide, sustained growls that rise ever so slightly in pitch and mesh incredibly well with what might just be the most evil set of riffs Asphyx has ever manifest, and that all comes down to the specific note progressions used here. A tune like "The Scent of Obscurity" would not be out of place on Last One on Earth, or even one of the newer records like Deathhammer, but as simple as the tremolo picking sounds, it just captures that malevolent, raw death metal aesthetic which so drew me to the emergent genre in the later 80s. The musicianship here is hardly superior to their other albums, and I didn't enjoy Eric Daniels' leads as much as his prior outing with the band (the Asphyx s/t in 1994), but when it comes down to sheer power and memorability of the tracks, this one is up there with Last One on Earth as one of my few go-to offerings in their catalog.

Dark, deep, dank, not long on innovation but the riffs have a lot of bite and inherent brutality, thanks to the caustic timbre of Wannes Gubbels throat. Like most Asphyx records, the bass seems relegated purely to an atmospheric instrument, thickening the rhythm guitar like baking powder to gravy. Bagchus has continued to develop as a drummer to the point that you could apply him to all but the most technical death metal, I love the splash of the snares here and the low end (kicks) really thunders through the guitar tone, which is very much redolent of Last One on Earth meets Consuming Impulse and that is perfectly fine by me. There's a lot of tension and hostility to the music which still musters up comparisons to that warfare aesthetic they have in the past (and future) shared with Bolt Thrower, but it's all fairly accessible if you'd been listening to death metal in the decade leading up to it. The production is definitely dialed back from the cleaner 1994-1996 material and that's a positive, since Asphyx lost a little edge in that period and, since reclaiming it here, do not seem to have let it go, even if I haven't been blown away by the 21st century stuff.

Interestingly, On the Wings of Inferno seems to be the least known/discussed of Asphyx' discography, to the extent that I knew a few fans who actually thought Death...the Brutal Way was their first offering since the mediocre God Cries. I'd conjecture that many had just given up on the band in the late 90s and didn't really pay attention to this, but perhaps it had more limited distribution. I know I saw it when it first dropped at a popular local chain, and picked one up, but the dawn of the millennium was hardly the apex for old school death metal worship. If this had dropped in 2010 it would've been another of those messianic death metal champions for at least 2-3 weeks before people moved on to the next Autopsy or . That said, if you've somehow missed out on it, I'd highly recommend picking this up, it's every bit worthy of Last One on Earth or The Rack and it's my second favorite of their works, scratching the itch for unhinged, unfriendly antiquity when I've worn out another copy of Scream Bloody Gore or Realm of Chaos.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (the extraction of impiety we drink)

http://www.asphyx.nl/

Asphyx - Live Death Doom (2010)

I've been ruminating a lot lately over the relevance of the live album in the 21st century, or how it pertains to my own life in particular. With the advent of high definition live content (DVDs, Blu-Rays, Netflix, etc) so readily available, and such a massive collection of studio music to listen through, with hundreds of new bands/albums each year, I find that I'm just not as capable of making the time for the audio-only experience. Back in the day, I loved me some Live After Death, Unleashed in the East, Live Without Sense, or KISS' Alive when cruising around in my teenage cars, or delivering newspapers while I would dream of being somewhere else; but having that visual stimulation is such a component of going to a gig that I'm not sure I want to do without it any more. Yeah, that's right, I no longer buy the things (unless they come as a package with the DVDs), but for the purpose of writing up discographies I'll still sit through and include them where applicable.

Live Death Doom was Asphyx' first foray into the medium, and they did not fuck around, with two discs and two hours of material recorded in Germany just after Death...the Brutal Way had been released. So we're talking Marvin van Drunen and Bob Bagchus back in the lineup together, the band finding its 'second wind', more accurately their fourth or fifth wind after all the brief breakups and reunions of the nineties and 'oughts. The time was really right, a period of celebration for the band's renewed productivity and dedication and just having issued the first studio album in nearly a decade (and a good one to boot), so why not? This wasn't some hack investment early on into their career, they had existed on the consciences of death metal maniacs for two decades, and I'm sure some fraction of them were pining over a package like this. Granted, we're once again faced with the realization that the audio-only release has nothing on the DVDs, where you are getting not only the live footage but some documentary/interview content that ultimately appreciates the value (if DVDs ultimately have any), a more fulfilling interface for the diehard audience. So if you're gonna spend the money, do it on that version, the Hordes of Disgust documentary being the most fascinating since they go into a little detail about the earlier years of the band in the late 80s.

In terms of production, the sound here fell a little flat for me...once the band is firing on all cylinders, it seemed to me like some of the dynamics get lost in the performance...I guess for 2009-2010 I was just expecting something a little more high-tech. You can certainly feel the fuzz and power in the music when there are some punctuated starts/stops, intros of particular songs, etc, but very often the instrumentation all kind of runs together, and considering that I was never the biggest fan of the group in the first place, so too do the tunes. But that's not to say it's an uninspired performance: the crowd seems to really get into it, chanting and/or howling along in response to cuts like "Asphyx II". The drums are really raw, but you can make out all the higher and lower end signals of the kit evenly, while the guitars seem to dominate, reducing the bass-lines to a mere puddle of groove or depth that hangs on the edge of perception. Lots of feedback and fiber to the riffs does give one the impression of being at a gig, which is fine, but I've just heard far better mixes on live recordings that feel more stereophonic, panned or coming at me from all angles, where this doesn't. Van Drunen sounds gruesome, and the band plays tightly through both the older and newer content, but I don't know...maybe an additional guitar would have made it more powerful, this seems a little dry despite all the saturation in tone.

Track-wise, this isn't a selection the fans are like to scoff at; Asphyx reaches back to oldies like "The Krusher", "M.S. Bismarck", "Vermin", "Rite of Shades", and even a full version of "The Rack" itself. No "Crush the Cenotaph", somewhat surprising, but it's available (another German performance) on the DVD version. The "Abomination Echoes" instrumental is present in the set, from the eponymous 1994 album, also surprising since I don't think any of these guys were in that lineup. Thankfully they omit material from the God Cries disc, which they apparently liked about as much as I did, but I was not so thrilled by the lack of On the Wings of Inferno material. One of their better albums, why ignore it when picking the set list? So then there's a whopping seven tracks from their new release (for the time) Death...the Brutal Way. Yes, 40 fucking minutes of material from an album that had dropped about a month before this was recorded/filmed, they might as well have played it from front to back! Honestly, wouldn't have minded dropping 2-3 of these out and including "For They Ascend..." or "The Scent of Obscurity" or something. Hell, Wayne and Bob are still in the lineup. At any rate, those 1994-2000 albums weren't popular whatsoever, so if they're playing to an audience stoked on hearing the 'classic Asphyx' it would make sense to leave those off (if any), since Death...the Brutal Way was more or less Last One on Earth II: Still on Earth.

Live Death Doom doesn't leave much of an impression on me in this audio format, primarily due to the production/mix. I didn't get as much value as the studio albums (On the Wings of Inferno, Death...the Brutal Way, etc). If someone had given me the choice to 'be there' or own these CDs for the rest of my life, I'd prefer the former. But for German/European fans in the crowd, it was an opportunity to catch up on a band many might not have seen in a very long time, and have most of the sacred slaughter-songs performed with 2/3rds of the classic roster that many hold above any other in the group's history. Don't pay money for this if you can also get the DVD, it's worth the difference (and consider my score for that package either a full point or 10% higher), but certainly this wasn't a 'cheap and easy' live recording. They took their time getting one out when they might have padded their earlier contract with one in the 90s, and thus it seemed inevitably better worth the cash when it did arrive.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

http://www.asphyx.nl/

Asphyx - God Cries (1996)

God Cries is often considered the career nadir for Asphyx. That's not an opinion I disagree with, but if I have to give it credit for something, it's the first of their albums that actually threw me for a loop, surprised me, and attempted something different. Granted, I struggle to remember songs off almost any of the Dutchmen's full-length works, and even now in the midst of reviewing their catalog I find a lot of their material slipping away. This is no exception, but at least I recall the first time listening how it threw me a curve ball, not unusual in the middle of the 90s when a lot of bands were experimenting with their sound or changing up styles completely. This is still identifiably Asphyx in nature, but it incorporates a lot more overt rock grooves and even a bit of a peppy punk influence in some of the faster paced chord progressions, like perhaps they had been listening to a lot of hardcore, groove and alt metal and wanted to branch out a bit of the morbidity into something more accessible...like Pungent Stench meets Corrosion of Conformity meets Helmet and then dowsed in 90s thrash and the viscera of Last One on Earth.

Might have had to do with the returning vocalist Theo Loomans, pulling triple duty with the guitar and bass; perhaps responsible for wanting a slight change in direction. Bob Bagchus spearheads this particular reunion (which didn't last long), and he admittedly is the strongest component here, with a powerful sound to his kit that translates into the kicks, toms, and a potent snare snap. The guitar tone is classic 1992 Asphyx and there are a number of propulsive old school rhythmic progressions ("God Cries", "Died Yesterday") which should ensure that the original Asphyx fanbase isn't completely alienated, but then you've got tunes like "My Beloved Enemy" which have these very basic, punk/hardcore configurations that wouldn't have been out of place on a lot of the 90s alt/grunge metal recordings. Not particularly inspired in terms of note construction, but the very fact that Asphyx continuously tossed these crests of gleaming chords over the grooves was a bit of a blindside, and even if the end result is probably their least impressive offering, it's not exactly the most disgraceful transformation of the decade...it's no Diabolus in Musica, Load or Risk, nor does it go the same distance as Morgoth's Feel Sorry for the Fanatic where they basically turned into later Killing Joke or Prong. It's almost like Asphyx took a few cues from label mates Only Living Witness who started off as a local Massachusetts thrash/hardcore band and then 'evolved' into emotional, wall-of-chord heavy rock.

I'm sure there was a contingent of the audience shocked by stuff like the aforementioned or "Frozen Soul", but Loomans and Bagchus make sure to leave in some death/thrashing, impulsive motifs redolent of Martin van Drunen's original tenure with the band. The production is fairly raw and atmospheric, not as dark and doomy as its eponymous predecessor, but it matches the brighter chords and the 'death & roll' pacing you get from a song like "The Blood I Spilled" which would have been a decent match for Desultory or Entombed during this same era, or Grave's Soulless/Hating Life period. Rhythm guitar tone is a meatier spin on Last One on Earth, but a lot more open chord patterns and less churning, grinding filth. Leads are bluesy and sporadic, bass is just sort of traipsing along with the guitar and not thinking for itself. As enthusiastic as the record was written in comparison to its gloomier forebears, most of these tunes are fleeting in nature, the sort you'd listen through once and have no real intention of revisiting. I'm not going to condemn Asphyx for its mutation like many others have, but ultimately it didn't produce anything of note, so it's no surprise this was quickly consigned to the bargain bins. Not exactly 'shit', but neither is it good. Heavy volume-wise, but not heavy in depth or repercussions upon the listener. If placed against Eric Daniels' lukewarm version of the band a couple years earlier, it falters, but I think this and that s/t are clearly the band's 'fucking around in the 90s' period and both could be safely avoided...all the other discs remain more relevant, especially in today's trending throwback death metal craze.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10] (our judgement has come)

http://www.asphyx.nl/

Asphyx - Reign of the Brute EP (2012)

Class, what a useless fucking release this was. Raise your hands if you can't wait roughly one month for the new Asphyx record? Okay, one in the front ro...oh, you're changing your mind and putting your hand down because no one else raised it. Right. Now, raise your hands if you love to collect vinyl? I see, a lot more of you this time. Well, I'll tell you who else loves vinyl. The recording industry, because, you see, they can fleece you with shit like the Reign of the Brute EP and then double fleece you again when the full-length comes out. Enforce scarcity with a limited edition 7" release (I think there must have been around 500 of these pressed), incorporate nothing of value. It's not the same case as a split, or a demo, or an EP with material unique to the 7", which are all fine. In fact, what if I told you that you could have the 'bonus' content from this on the limited edition of the Deathhammer full-length?

Now, I've got no major issue with the two songs here, brutal and furious modern Asphyx with largely the same production values as you'd have expected if you'd heard Death...the Brutal Way or the Hail of Bullets debut Of Frost and War before this. Raucous, aggressive guitar tone which can compete with both the Asphyx/Autopsy of old and all the Swedish crust in the world. There's nothing remarkable about the riff progressions, but was there ever? Not exactly, so it's the production here, as well as Martin van Drunen's ghastly vocal presence that really drives a tune like "Reign of the Brute" home. "Der Landser" is slower, longer and more calculated, but not much more impressive in note selection, just a lot of simplistic chugs that repeat themselves and you know where they're going at any given time. This is the German version of the song, not available on Deathhammer proper, which I suppose might have been a 'selling point' for the 7" if it wasn't also on the limited edition CD! On second thought, no, not a selling point at all, and the greater issue is that this wasn't like they put out two songs and then included them on an album six months later so the fans who didn't get one in time could have them...this was all pre-calculated, commercial nonsense. Pure product.

So the songs are nothing to write home about, not exclusive, going to be released in a short span of time with more songs (some of which are better). What else does the Reign of the Brute 7" have going for it? The Axel Hermann cover art (which earns my entire score) just seems pretty piecemeal with that of Deathhammer itself, and there's no other content worth a damn. I wouldn't mind an entire Asphyx/Hail of Bullets war metal record in the German language; it's appropriate to the lyrical content and context, and I sometimes prefer the sound of it myself. But I can't say that in this case it feels any more potent than the English version, so this sort of 'bonus' is fleeting at best (even when Manowar does a whole CD of a song in every language they could translate it to) and mostly just bullshit. Ultimately, Reign of the Brute is just a cheap cash-in on a trending musical format and the popular resurgence of an old school death metal band. Don't encourage this crap! Avoid! You'd be better off kicking a few bucks to a charity or saving towards the next time you're headed to the Nederland for some coffee.

Verdict: Epic Fail [.5/10] (the gruesome breed is hatching)

http://www.asphyx.nl/

Asphyx - Embrace the Death (1996)

The mid-to-late 90s were marred with a series of Asphyx breakups and reunions that resulted in a number of iterations of the lineup, with essentially different original members giving the death metal a go. For example, the eponymous record was Eric Daniel's stab at a new roster, and God Cries was a Bob Bagchus-led effort which involved the earlier front man Theo Loomans. The same year the latter was released, 1996, they also put out Embrace the Death, which was one of those deals where a bunch of older recordings that essentially might have been their debut album in an alternate timeline finally sees the light, and this is more of less the continuity of that Mutilating Process EP I covered a while back. In fact it encompasses that material and a number of others tunes that would be 'redundant' with other releases, like "Crush the Cenotaph", but if you wanted a chance to hear what Asphyx might have sounded like without acquiring van Drunen and Ron van Pol, eat your heart out.

The Dutchmen already had a pretty grotesque vocalist in Loomans, and might never have needed them if he had continued on through the 90s, and Embrace the Death covers a pretty broad range of material from the chuggier death metal to some death/doom and even borderline grind bits. The guitars here are a bit more raw and unrefined than a number of the other 'official' studio records, but I have to say there is probably just as much if not meat on the tone here than anything else they'd done to this point. The riffs are largely the same, but cases could be made for a few of the tunes like "The Sickened Dwell" sounding superior to their Rack incarnations, if only because they seem more morbidly fat, with the leads disappearing into the overbearing walls of heavy. Bob's drums are audible but a little tinny against the corpulent rhythm guitars, and the bass just seems to service the bottom end contours of the riffing, but Embrace the Death is indisputably some dark sounding shit, most worth it to fans of groups Autopsy and Obituary who also 'embraced' some a twisted approach vector to the genre, borne on ugliness and crushing brutality more than technique. Now, don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of throwaway grooves or chord progressions here which don't generate a lot of compulsion in me compared to much of the death or death/doom I'd already experienced in 1996 (even accounting for its original 90/91 target date), but it smacks of that crude authenticity you feel when you experience an old death metal demo from the period.

The good news for fans and collectors is that there were some tunes exclusive to this recording which haven't seen release elsewhere (at least not in this particular form), like the 5 and a half minute death/doom slog "Circle of the Secluded" which is naturally slow and barbaric but has a few dour melodies to break up the atmosphere; or "To Succubus a Whore", a pretty brief tune which cycles through some measured blast beats over what sounds like one of the faster old Obituary tunes, then busts into this groove which reminds me a lot of a Candlemass tune if reinforced with a gallon of sewage and ugly gutturals. The Mutilating Process EP is also tucked in there at the end for some value. Granted, my preference remains with van Drunen over Loomans, though this guy makes a decent alternative for him, or Reifert, or Tardy, I just don't think he has that same level of sickness inherent to his performance. There's almost no versatility to the growls, though one could argue the same on certain songs that those other guys have performed on. Musically, the writing of these obscure tracks is no better than The Rack, somewhat predictable riffing patterns that rely a lot more on heaviness than creativity, though to be fair, they're a lot more generic when bands in the 21st century use them, which happens a lot more than you'd expect! At least in '89-'90 it still felt like fresh dirt. Anyway, not a waste of money if you love Autopsy or Cianide or have to own all the Asphyx material, but I was a little more curious about what the Bagchus/Loomans revival of the band would produce next.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10] (aversion for your failed gods)

http://www.asphyx.nl/

Asphyx - Asphyx (1994)

There are exactly three things I liked more about the eponymous 1994 Asphyx record than either of its predecessors, which I'll get into further on, but ultimately it's just too easy to forget amidst an era in which a lot of younger bands were creating more exciting, unique, volatile sounds and taking risks to further intensity death metal as a whole. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for an old school album that 'gets it right' through tremendous riffing quality, atmosphere, production, and vocals with some charnel character to them, but Asphyx falls flat in two of those specific categories and its strengths do nothing to compensate. That this album was even possible two years after Last One on Earth, with 2/3rds of that core lineup gone (van Drunen and Bagchus) to other pursuits, is not lost upon me as a relatively impressive feat, but any 'magic' the Dutch trio might have garnered from their earlier momentum seems to have ground to a halt. The Century Media deal persisted, there was plenty of visibility and thus every chance to expand their following, but this music hardly seemed vital or inspired.

There are positives, of course! Firstly, I find the production here richer and more atmospheric than either The Rack or Last One..., which is suited to this more structured approach to songwriting. Granted, most of that songwriting is a 'drag', but not because the instrument levels or off, or because the vocals stand out too much or too little against them. Asphyx has a fairly resonant appeal to it, and that's important because this leads to my second compliment: the death/doom elements are far more pervasive, and they sound far more grandiose, morose and downtrodden than where they popped up on the older material. Not that they're Lost Paradise or Gothic in quality, but you feel like you're trapped among abandoned columns in some ancient space that few people will ever see, and there's a sense of loss here that wasn't manifest on the older works, where the doomier passages were often just a dry breakdown groove. Lastly, the fucking leads on this thing absolutely rip, the greatest of Eric Daniels' tenure with Asphyx and especially successful when they're tearing out against some Scream Blood Gore/Leprosy-style tremolo picked progression as in the song "'Til Death Do Us Part". No, they're not remotely unique or inventive, but exciting and so well performed that the remainder of the s/t tends to suffer by comparison. Sadly, there's no other praise I can really heap upon this beast, because it's the sort of disc that feels ineffectual even upon first exposure...

The bass tones are appreciably repulsive, distorted and loud, especially during the faster and heavier sequences, but this was something they had already been ramping up with Last One on Earth, on which Ron van Pol had also played the bass, but he never really deviates from van Drunen's practice of aping the rhythm guitar line without contributing any depth beyond reinforcement (which is often just lazy). Of course, he's also providing the vocals as well, but here is where Asphyx suffers slightly, since van Pol's guttural Chris Reifert impression just doesn't have that manic, gruesome presence that van Drunen had already mastered in the 80s. This guy isn't a bad choice, per se, and thanks to the production he's able to build up a cavernous consistency over the riffs, but it's just one more reason this disc would never stand out against something like Demilich's Nespithe or the punctuation of Frank Mullen on the older Suffocation works. The new drummer, Sander van Hoof (aka Roel Sanders), could genuinely be considered an improvement over the performances on the older Asphyx outings, and it seems the trio was keeping with the times by hiring on a harder hitter, but apart from some double bass and energy this is just not in the same realm as where much death metal was headed by the mid-90s. Still, he's damn solid, and if you've heard his work with God Dethroned or Inhume then you'll know he remained that way.

When you're going the route of the eponymous record, it's supposed to be a 'statement' of sorts, and the only one I received after revisiting this example was to put it back on the shelf (with most of my Asphyx stuff, unfortunately). There's a good balance of material, the band still splitting their creativity between the death and doom halves of Daniels' imagination, and I through the funereal touches like the organs (in "Back Into Eternity") or the 4-minute instrumental intro "Prelude of the Unhonoured Funeral" were some of the most atmospherically compelling over the hour-long run time, but this album just repeatedly confronts me with excessively plain and plebeian chord patterns that render tunes like the nearly 10 minute "Initiation into the Ossuary" almost unbearable; and that's one of the tunes that focuses heavily on Death and Obituary-like riffing almost exclusively! Other tunes, like "Thoughts of an Atheist", contain passages so mind numbingly bland that I thought I had accidentally replaced my daily multivitamin dose with a sedative. Overall, it's not the worst they could've done, due largely to the strength of the production, the decently scripted lyrics, and those nasty leads, but unless you're the sort whose standards translate into every death metal disc pre-1995 being TRUE and/or PERFECT, I can't imagine it's going to leave you with much more of an impression than it left me.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10] (disposed by the ghost of death)

http://www.asphyx.nl/

Asphyx - Last One on Earth (1992)

Last One on Earth immediately trumps its predecessor by effectively face-planting it into war-torn concrete and then stamping on it repeatedly while beating on its own chest. Admittedly, there is still a bleed-through of somewhat uninteresting riffing progressions, and this is not a record which I rank among the most highly prized gems of that 1987-1993 epoch of 'classic death metal', but it says a lot that it remains my favorite Asphyx record to this day, even more so than efforts like Death...the Brutal Way or Deathhammer which have transplanted its aggressive formula into the universe of contemporary production standards that, frankly, make a lot of older, low budgeted records sound like you're hearing them through a sewer grate. Granted, my favorite 'Asphyx' albums are called ...of Frost and War and On Divine Winds, but take that as you will, because without the existence of this sophomore (and Bolt Thrower), we wouldn't have gotten those. This was also the final Asphyx album to team up Martin van Drunen, Eric Daniels, and Bog Bagchus...all would be a part of the lineup in the future, and reunite for the Grand Supreme Blood Court debut, but Last One on Earth really marks the end of that 'classic' tenure and deserves some respect.

Not that it can't cultivate that dignity through its musical value alone, for where The Rack often presented some rather dry, lackluster compositional scenarios, Last One on Earth is simply more exciting and more coherent an experience, on which the instruments and vocals gel together far better. Ron van Pol's bass lines are far more caustic and fuzzy, potent enough to drive home the lyrical themes and stand up to the rhythm guitar tone which once dominated them a bit much on the debut. Speaking of which, Daniels doesn't detract from any of the crunch of the prior effort, but here the chords really club the listener in the gut, and the Death style tremolo riffing sequences in tunes like "M.S. Bismarck" help remind one why they were so cool in the 80s. Drums still retain a lot of that rock stability, with lurching and minimalistic grooves to accompany the death/doom progressions that litter the landscape, but again they seem mixed a little better in balance with the other performances, and in union the three players give off an impression of a rusted tank of veterans just trying to win a battle by any ugly means necessary. Van Drunen's vocals aren't a hell of a lot different than Consuming Impulse or The Rack, unless you count that he seems to strain himself into an even more pained and bloody pulp, but really he's got such a tremendous presence anywhere that he doesn't exactly need to change up what he's doing. Very peculiar when you consider that there was some disconnect among the band members by this time. I'm not sure if he was even with the other guys when recording it, but somehow the record is completely cohesive despite that.

When it comes down to the riffing alone, this isn't the most exemplary or intricate in terms of construction or constitution, and yet it's clearly more passionate in execution than the debut, which felt a little haphazard and lazy in places. There are some brutally barebones death/doom groove patterns here in tunes like "The Krusher" which I find somewhat boring today, and also felt underwhelmed by when I was 18 and this was released. But it's really about perspective. Some people might find ghost stories frightening, or being in the dark spooky, or being jumped by a 90 lbs-when-soaking-wet schizoid crack addict intimidating, but to others among us, that's Thursday. That's lunch. Hell, if Last One on Earth had been one of my first death metal albums, I might have found it fresher and more menacing upon listening, but having already been into the genre when records like Leprosy and Realm of Chaos arrived I can't say it matches up. There's no creepiness in the processions of notes to rival the former, and as an example of a paean to desolate fields of conquest and genocide, the latter HAS no equal. Mental Funeral had really done what this record does better the year before. So, while the Asphyx sophomore is clearly comparable to such company, it just doesn't possess the stickiest riffs or atmosphere to keep me addicted. But it does fucking try, and that's why if you were to approach and ask me to opine on the career of these Dutchmen, I'd pass you this CD and then inquire you to tell me.

I wouldn't want to pigeonhole Last One on Earth entirely into that 'war metal' suburb of the death genre, because not all the lyrics here revolve around that specific subject matter, for instance "Food for the Ignorant" seems to expand upon the Axel Hermann cover artwork; but clearly tunes like "M.S. Bismarck" "Asphyx (Forgotten War") and "Serenade in Lead" deal in the specifics of conflicts and/or gunfire rampages, and this as a whole (along with Bolt Thrower) was an influence further fleshed out in Hail of Bullets, or other lesser known bands like Invasion. So there is some significance to its position in extreme metal history, beyond the fact that it's a pretty good time if you want to throw your mind away for a few minutes and just revel in the roiling riffs, doomed interludes, and ghoulish vocalizations that define pieces like "Streams of Ancient Wisdom" and "The Incarnation of Lust". If I break it down much further, the notes only occasionally move in compelling directions, perhaps too evenly dispersed between the slower and faster content, with no unexpected choices ever happening by even 1992 standards. That said, some albums are not meant to revolutionize the world, merely to catalyze its transformation into inevitable ash. Last One on Earth, if the name doesn't already give it away, belongs to that camp. Not as important to me as its peers of the time (Testimony of the Ancients, Cross the Styx, Shadows, Mindloss, etc), but you could do a lot worse than lounge out in its measured violence.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (paradise long gone)

http://www.asphyx.nl/

Asphyx - Crush the Cenotaph EP (1992)

Conceptually, the Crush the Cenotaph EP was an opportunity to draw on a few of the older Asphyx tracks (from the 1989 demo of the same title), re-recording both the music and vocals with Martin van Drunen; to also give the fans a sampling of what was to come on their sophomore Last One on Earth, and lastly, slap on a few live offerings. So at the time, one might consider it a sort of 'past, present and future' celebration during a time when this was quite a standard setup for the EP format, across multiple musical genres. Of course, this often led to a feeling of disjointedness when listening through, since the audio quality was very unlikely to be consistent, thus I'm not the biggest fan of these short players unless all the content is on the same 'page': new studio material, all-live, all re-recordings, etc. But I probably threw down only about 4-5 USD on this in a bargain bin somewhere, mainly to experience more van Drunen vocals and because I though Axel Hermann's artwork was quite sick. Otherwise, my expectations for this were pretty humble...but not met regardless.

Production-wise (courtesy of Waldemar Sorychta), I actually enjoyed the re-recorded versions of "Crush the Cenotaph"  and "Rite of Shades" more than anything off The Rack, largely because the guitars seemed a little more rich and robust in tone, if sacrificing some of the futile fuzz and tension off the full-length for clarity. Thanks to this decision, Martin's ghoulish vocals seemed to splatter all over the rhythm tracks like viscera to a polished and sharpened knife, and I also felt like Bob Bagchus' drums stood out more evenly than the album. Bass is roughly equivalent, perhaps a bit louder, and the leads really tear up the scene where they appear; the guitar riffs in general just seem more muscular and potent than so many I had been disappointed with on The Rack, even if these are not incredibly memorable death metal tunes for the time, but rather on the primal level of what bands like Cianide and Cancer were coming up with during the same period. "The Krusher" was mildly catchier, if not impressive, with a nice death/doom lurch to it that got along well with the grotesque vocal lines, and so it did generate some positive portents for Last One on Earth, an album I ended up enjoying more than the first. I must say, though, that nothing here is necessarily spectacular and the EP doesn't have much value beyond that of a collector's piece or for anyone who REALLY WANTS to hear the demo cuts 're-imagined'.

As for the live tunes, both ("Evocation" and "Wasteland of Terror") are off The Rack and seem quite vibrant from a Stockholm gig. I have long believed that the simplicity of Asphyx' material would lend itself better to the live setting, and this confirms it, because neither track sounds as laconic or impotent as the previous studio recording. The drums have a lot more pep, the guitars fuzzed the fuck out and van Drunen sounds absolutely fantastic here, on both the bass and microphone. That lead in "Evocation" sounds somewhat transcendent here, but even if the majority of riffing selections are still pretty barebones for early 90s death metal, I feel like they would have been fairly fun to watch. As a result, Crush the Cenotaph seems like pretty solid fan bait, just not something to go out of your way to acquire unless you can conveniently get the 2006 Century Media reissue of Last One on Earth which includes both this EP content and some other early material. Musically it's not so grisly as the cover artwork would imply, but then anyone who hear The Rack probably wouldn't be expecting anything more than stock death metal with a few morbid, doomy hooks. Asphyx was not yet living up to the hype that succeeded them 15-20 years later, but in my opinion they still haven't, so this isn't something that I often, or really ever have the urge to listen through.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10] (frenzied eyes look into the past)

http://www.asphyx.nl/

Asphyx - The Rack (1991)

Most New Englanders get their rectums sore when one of their favorite athletes gets traded away to a rival team, but for myself, the hemorrhoids begin to flare up when an idolized metal musician is sent off to another 'franchise'. When that icon is my favorite death metal vocalist of all time, Martin van Drunen, then the situation goes critical, and there is no amount of Preparation H that can balm it. As you can imagine, that means I was not a very fair chap to Asphyx's full-length debut when it first arrived. Oh, I bought it immediately...it was a death metal tape after all and there was a time when I had to have ALL of THOSE, and could actually afford them, since they were scarce. I'm not even sure I was aware that van Drunen was on this until I popped it into my deck, only to gasp in revulsion that his filthy and menacing presence was being paired up with a set of riffs that simply did not deserve it! Comparing Testimony of the Ancients to this album...well...we all know who got the best of that deal. So, shortly after, The Rack got 'racked' with all the other middling material of 1991 that I wasn't feeling, and for a long time I got on fine ignoring it.

Of course, I was being a bit of a cunt, and the Asphyx debut is not all that bad...it's really a decent death metal outing with a large wake of influence we're still hearing today, but not so worthy of its cult status as others in its class. It's neither as gruesome as Autopsy's Severed Survival or impenetrably subterranean and evil as Incantation's Onward to Golgotha, two records that, along with this one, created a sort of unholy trilogy of sediment upon which much of today's retro cavern core rests. Nor is it quite so impressive as first offerings of other Dutch bands like Gorefest or Sinister, both more brutal and entertaining...certainly The Rack is not within reach of Malleus Maleficarum or Consuming Impulse, two of my favorite albums of all time in any genre. While they were unquestionably inspired by the Florida stuff, Asphyx lacked the capacity for sinister, infectious riffing you'd find on Scream Bloody Gore, Leprosy, Altars of Madness or Cause of Death. Lastly, though Asphyx cultivated a bit of a death/doom reputation here (not nearly so much as on some of their later efforts), there is an almost unanimous lack of effective, brooding atmosphere and sadness beyond a few of the sparse leads and melodies, for it to be placed in the company of Lost Paradise, As the Flower Withers, or the raw and influential Into Darkness by New York's Winter. Not that I myself love all the gloom cookies in that last batch equally, but The Rack is just not as emphatically depressing.

No, best to think of this as a decidedly average set of death metal riffs, benefiting from an ace vokillist, that happened to be released in the right place and time that those future generations on the internet would worship it by chronological proximity to the birth of the genre. It was one of the earlier Century Media offerings, along with Tiamat's sophomore The Astral Sleep (which is also a better record), released in a period when that label had yet to become a household name among the metal crowd, but still managed to get it out in stores here in the States; they might not have been heavily promoted, but Asphyx was 'available' to purchase, or to check out, and I think that generated some momentum other death metal antiquities were unable to partake in. These days, it seems almost as if this was one of those records that you 'automatically' have to fiend for if you're a Legit Death Metal Person of Taste, a sentiment that is rubbish and not even hinging on truth, but one that is unfortunately commonplace for a lot of these 1990-1993 releases that almost no one gave a shit about when they first dropped, including yours truly who bought them all like a kid in a candy store. That's not to say its historically insignificant...for example, it's one of the first cases of a death metal musician finding success with a second band (along with Chris Reifert's transition from Scream Bloody Gore to Autopsy); the logo and H.R. Giger-like artwork by Axel Hermann are undoubtedly iconic.

The Rack is produced with a raw and grating guitar tone against a relatively spiffy drum mix that doesn't confer much power to the experience as a whole, and even van Drunen seems complacent to the crunch of the riffing, where in Pestilence he was helming some of the most brilliant, frightening and creative guitar progressions that either thrash or death metal ever produced (to this day). The pacing on the album ranges from slower, 'doom' chord constructions to rabid triplet chugging, and I found some of the most aggressively flooded passages to remind me quite a lot of Obituary's faster material, or the dense tone of the guitar in general; though John Tardy's ghastly voice seems a better fit for this than Martin. Asphyx also turns out a number of more musically involved grooves at a 'happier' pace, but what all of the rhythm guitars have in common is that they're not terribly memorable... often reduced to just grinding white noise during some of the vocal lines. Think Severed Survival or Mental Funeral if they were a little less catchy and grotesque, with a few of Death's old tremolo picked patterns modified to seem more boring, and you are in the ballpark of how this sounds. The one caveat to the middling of the songwriting is that the atmospheric leads really stand out so much by default...the listener's becomes so accustomed to not hearing anything interesting, just a lot of abusive and crunching riffs that even your cat could play with minimal instruction.

'But it's so heavy, maaaaan.' Yeah, yeah, I get it, but no, when Black Sabbath did these doomier, simplistic riffs it was heavy (and revolutionary). When Autopsy did this it was carnal. When Obituary did it, I kept checking my closet at night, and a close eye on the manhole cover outside. When Asphyx does it, the notes just do not fall into patterns that are in any way remarkable or creative ("Pages in Blood" has what I believe to be the most entertaining chord placement on the disc). Not unlike Cancer's debut To the Gory End: passable, but all around unimpressive. I might dub The Rack an 'idealess' example of old death metal, and I would not be incorrect, but I think the record is saved by its dispassionate ugliness and the few spires of melodic grace which erupt from the growling turmoil of van Drunen and Eric Daniels in tandem, in tunes like "Evocation". I unfortunately cannot say much for the bass playing...it was never the focal point of Pestilence either, but at least it's present enough that it balances out Martin's contributions against the other instruments. A subtle pump easily subdued by the sustained fuzz in the rhythm guitar, but audible. As for the drums, one might say they suffer from the same ills on a lot of other, older death metal recordings...this was not a point at which everyone had jumped onto the Slayer/Dark Angel extreme drumming train, so this is primarily simplistic, rock based grooves that fit the slower moments but don't necessarily pick up much in intensity during faster sections. The kicks, toms and cymbals all sound really dry.

My appreciation for The Rack has admittedly waxed in time, from bland disregard to general acceptance, and I can occasionally break this out and listen through the whole thing without falling asleep. Largely because you grow an appreciation for the simplicity and authenticity of these times. That said, the production is simply not all that interesting, most of the tunes sound better on stage these days. In a pivotal period in which death metal was still being refined, experimented on, and ramped further towards the inevitable brutality and instrumental mastery, the Asphyx debut is simply not comparative or competitive with much else. The lyrics, which deal with optimistic topics like disease, torture and religion (yes, I know they're all the same thing) are very often stronger than the music. The Rack seems to be bookended by its better material: the 80s sci-fi/ambient intro "The Quest of Absurdity" is a fantastic setup for which there is no real payoff when "Vermin" arrives, and the closing duo of "Pages in Blood" and the sprawling, nine minute title track are the most effective in terms of sounding monstrous and brooding. Otherwise, it's just not that compelling a listen...you get some sparks of atmosphere through the leads, but they're too few and far between. Ultimately, it's 'good', but just barely...a cafeteria steak & cheese as opposed to a rib eye at a four star establishment, and I have to try to force myself to 'forget' where van Drunen had previously appeared. But, hey, it's honest early 90s death metal, from a band that would shortly improve, and if that's enough to salve your bum, you probably don't have one, which makes the prospect of assless chaps that much more...awkward.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (the sentence is death)

http://www.asphyx.nl/

Asphyx - Mutilating Process EP (1989)

They might have been a few years later than fellows Pestilence, who had already released two of the greatest extreme metal albums of their (or any) day, in reaching the international awareness of the underground. Yet the formative years of Asphyx certainly offered a crushing, viable alternative to their more clinical countrymen, and with the Mutilating Process single, they carved out their stylistic manifesto at a median between the death metal of antiquity and a prevalent doom influence tracing itself back to Sabbath. The two tracks here are not exactly complex enterprises, but they show an inherent penchant for plodding, dark rhythms laden in the melodic lamentations we were hearing from the UK scene (Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, etc.)

What I find most fascinating about this brief rarity is just how much the vocals foreshadow the transference of Martin van Drunen just a short year later. Asphyx were already on their third growler here, having had others during their '88-89 demo years, but Theo Loomans possessed a nearly identical, ghastly torn throat approach which is damned near consistent with The Rack. I do find that the actual placement of the lyrics here is a bit scarce, and the Dutchmen rely too much on instrumental passages, which gives the (shy of 9 minutes) material a rather skewed perspective, but where he appears, it sounds hoarse and flush with the chugging, low end guitars and molasses pacing that accompany him. That said, the first of these tracks, the "Mutilating Process" itself is admittedly pretty predictable and weak, with a simple elevation of chords that merges into a mid-paced churning at the bridge.

"Streams of Ancient Wisdom" is more interesting by default, due to the numerous, saddening melodic passages strewn about the first few minutes, but the actual heavy riffs also seem to suffer from a pretty slack note selection and are not nearly so effective as the melancholic teasing might have imparted. As a result, I find the single pretty sodden on the whole, a mere primate precursor to the far better albums to follow, but at least it helps lay a foundation. I should also note that both of these tracks have been released numerous times again in the band's careers. The rough mixes for the 7" were tossed onto the end of Embrace the Death (1996), the title track has been on compilations, and "Streams..." was re-recorded for the sophomore Last One on Earth (1992) in what in my estimate is a far stronger recurrence. Thus, while this single is a great collectors' item, with excellent cover art, the musical content itself is not so important or memorable.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10] (the power with which Belial writes)

http://www.asphyx.nl/

Asphyx - Death...the Brutal Way (2009)

It's a great thing to see and hear Martin Van Drunen in multiple bands lately. Aside from his excellent new Hail of Bullets, he has returned to front Asphyx, after 17 years of absence. Although I've always considered this band quite average in the face of peers like Pestilence, Creepmine and Sinister, the early recordings with Van Drunen were probably their best. As Death...the Brutal Way proves here, it was a wise decision to reunite with the man.

Yes, Death...the Brutal Way is a shitty title for an album, but it's the best Asphyx I have heard in a long time. I won't lie, there are many parallels to Hail of Bullets here, including Paul Baayens' brutal, simplistic approach to riffy devastation, but then, that's how Asphyx has always been. What I'm most glad for is that the band has largely relieved themselves of the bland death/doom style they were flaunting in the 90s. This album is fresh and aggressive, like the bright blood spilling out of a newly severed artery. The basic, go-for-the-throat mentality creates some good times in tracks like "The Herald", "Riflegun Redeemer" and the excellent "Black Hole Storm" which took me right back to Van Drunen's years in Pestilence. If you truly enjoyed the band's doomier days, they haven't abandoned you completely: "Cape Horn" is a pretty slow, desolate track that is also quite good.

This album sounds immense. The riffing might not be complex, but it is delivered with incredible power through the mix of the guitars. If you enjoy Hail of Bullets, it is only natural that you pick this album up, since there are so many parallels. Far from perfect, but it's the best Asphyx album in many years, and arguably the best I've ever heard from them, so for those of you who fancy their brutal, bombastic, basic death metal, it is sure to please.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.asphyx.nl/