Review Summary: A primal death metal powerhouse of 2012.
Funeral Whore’s
Step Into Damnation steps out impressively onto the death metal scene, not only as a commendable album of the genre, but also impressively as the band’s debut.
Step Into Damnation marks what it takes to be a modern death metal band with a simplistic, back to basics approach to death metal. After waves and waves of monotonous acts in an extremely done before genre
Step Into Damnation is a refreshing take on an old sound similar to that of Autopsy, Incantation and Rigor Mortis.
Funeral Whore uses a typically sounding traditional take on the death metal sound. Right from the opening track ‘Eternal Genocide’ listeners are exposed to some crushing, unrelenting and in-your-face death metal. What gives life to
Step Into Damnation is that the music is built on some “no frills” and “straight forward” thinking. Yes, the music is typical of most within the genre; driving drum beats, deep growls, heavy guitar riffs and semi-morbid lyrics and whilst this isn’t separating their sound away from the fore runners of death metal, this simplistic approach makes for a rather enjoyable listen for everybody sick of the clichés presented in the off shoots of the genre. The music may have been done before, but that takes almost nothing away from Funeral Whore’s debut album.
It’s not like this album is trying anything new, listeners could pick from a number of different death metal bands and find a little something in
Step Into Damnation. The riffs are crunchy, gritty and well measured. The drums play the same 4/4 timing pattern with the occasional half time or double time thrown in. The vocal growls could b found in many bands across the genre but none of this is an issue here. Why? The production helps. Each component was evenly recorded and even the bass (which is lost in most recordings) is heard giving a full bodied sound to the music, Reinforcing and thickening the rhythmic aspects of the album. Another scarce feature of the album includes the lack of leads. But when the leads do come out to play they have a greater effect and maintain the interest of the listener.
Whilst
Step Into Damnation was built off ideas built long ago and sounds roughly the same on paper, there is a contrast here that helps maintain the listeners attention; riffs change from bouncy (see ‘El Salvador Death Squad’) to double time tempo that can be found in the title track. These small (and sometimes unnoticeable) changes help the album to progress and allow the album to be seen in a better light by the listener. Unfortunately some listeners may find this caveman approach a little boring or tedious to sit through, with a certain amount of repetition seeping through the roars and riffs, listeners need to be aware that this music isn’t trying to make new ground instead it’s focused on a primal death metal sound at it’s most simplistic form. This attention to do the simplistic well creates a focus that keeps one thing in mind; merciless damnation. With all this in mind it’s still worth some listening time for some of the most solid death metal of 2012.
