How many times have you awful freaks reading this out there on the wild world web listened to whatever crap you like to listen to and thought to yourselves “Shucks, I really wish that this artist had released more stuff”? It’s a pretty basic rite of music listening passage to yearn for more material from an artist, but what a lot of people often rarely take into consideration is that if they got their wish and their band had indeed decided to record more stuff, it would cause a chain reaction of events that would change the whole course of history and the reality that would exist right now would be profoundly and grotesquely different so instead of carelessly wishing away this hard-earned timeline of ours for the sake of your fleeting listening pleasure why don’t you just be grateful for what you’ve got instead of endlessly moaning about the what ifs you entitled little pricks!!!
If it isn’t obvious, the point I’m making here relates to the fact that studies have found that there are more underrated death metal bands from Sweden that briefly surfaced in the early 1990s than there are cool undiscovered animals beyond where light reaches in the ocean. One such band, helpfully named Crematory (SWE), put out an array of demos of varying acclaim including this, their most notable release, called Denial. Despite the name there is no denying that this is an exhilarating and engaging slice of Swedish death metal that boasts some of best Swedeath grooves around.
Anyone who has been to Sweden can attest that that gravity works differently there, and this is immediately obvious in the unbelievable bouncing momentum generated by opening track Into Cephalis, which goes not only Into Cepahlis but also into riffs with unhinged urgency. The absorbing velocity with which the riffs are played is almost as if they cannot stop or else their guitars will explode, something which would be a cool idea for a sequel to the movie Speed I think (any Hollywood execs out there reading this please get in touch). If that isn’t good enough then how about the appetisingly sinewy mess left over by Chunks of Flesh in which debilitatingly fast trems and riffs resound with such a gratifying bounce that it is plainly no coincidence that this record came out in the same year as Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
While treble-heavy accelerating grooves are absolutely key to Denial, the rhythm does more than just hang on for dear life; bestowing the riffs with even more power than they already ought to have. A good example of this is in closer “Unconsecrated Ground” where both bass and drums repeatedly refresh the unholy riff offensive to bring together a suitable closer. The growls are relatively sparse and rarely varied but add considerable evilness to the frequent culminations of vigorous riffs.
Unlike this review, Denial tastefully avoids outstaying its welcome, summing its parts in a healthy morsel of four easily digestible tunes. Possibly entirely for the sake of the aforementioned insatiable complaint babies that roam the endless interwastes, this EP was included in a 2009 re-release also called Denial which included the bands 3 other demos which I have not listened to because I am in Denial about how good they might be haha sorry.
