Holy batcrap how my body hurts! Thanks to English death-thrashers Flayed Disciple and their debut album 'Death Hammer'. It happens to be one of the more energetic albums I've heard lately, and it just isn't healthy for a listener... Infectious grooves and the force simply grab the person listening to it and throw one around.

The groove factor here has nothing to do with modern day metalcore or such. Flayed Disciple are basically a death metal band, but they have a lot of thrash metal's energy and flurry. It's tight yet jesting. 'Bring down the Hammer' and the first "proper" song 'The Westboro Massacre' include loads of thrash metal stuff. Here, death metal side of the music comes mainly from low, loud and guttural growling, and some blasting drumming. Surely there are some guitar work from beyond the grave too, but the album starts with thrash metal having a bigger proportion of these two compositions. 'Interceptor' sounds like Cannibal Corpse partying with Gama Bomb or some band like that, so death metal facet starts to gain more space. Flayed Disciple were clearly influenced by North American death and thrash metal styles.

Six out of ten of the songs are fairly long for this kind of metal, which radiates killing rays packed with massive amounts of energy and outrage. I would have bet, that there was a leaking nuclear plant in Taunton, where the band come from. Gladly the songs include more than three parts. There's a lot of tempo changes too, which is apparent because of the two musical styles colliding like a couple of juggernauts. The pace varies from very fast to mid-paced, headbangable speeds. The rhythm guitar is fleshy and thick (...just like my dick! I apologize for lame humour. I just had to write that...). Picked notes, heavier shredding, death riffs that make me think of writhing maggots on corpses. Surely there are familiar riffs and bits, but nothing's overdone. Solo guitar work is on thrashy side, between rockin' 'n' technical. It's a joy to listen to those catchy solos! It is good to hear the bass guitar booming, and not overshadowed by the drums, which sound triggered. At least the kick drums, which get very fast at times, do so.

The lyrics deal with rather typical things. However, there are some welcome differences. For example, Westboro Baptist Church dregs get dung thrown at them, with gory-as-fuck text. I think there are gore/horror movie influences, too, but certainly there are serial killers abound. Well, the lyrics are about death, in varying magnitude, but there's always black-as-coal humour included. The texts are descriptive, but stay out of medical lexicon. The vocals are guttural growling, as mentioned earlier. It's all equally powerful defecation without stamina lessening during longer vocal parts.

The band's performances are skilled yet impetuous. These guys know their stuff. The production work is quite well done. Every element has its place and there is no overshadowing. Heavier rhythm guitar parts sound a bit dry and restrained, but gladly this does not cause any overshadowing, which it easily could have done. Here, both modern and archaic production values unite. There are some brutal samples, but I actually wanted to hear more of them. Well, this way there's no glut about them. Overally, it's genuine entertainment listening to 'Death Hammer'.

The previous sentence goes for the music too. 51+ minutes is a lot of death-thrash in one go, and to tell the truth, the album starts to sound a tad repeating towards its end. Still, Flayed Disciple released an exploding debut album, which is a must for those who love groovy brutality. I bet the next one will slaughter, whereas this just murders. Come on, Flayed Disciple are a good band, so why not give them a small push and buy this from them?

Rating: 7½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
03/05/2013 12:00