Review Summary: Brutally powerful and armed to the brim with excellent riffs, The Dead Shall Inherit is one of early death metal's stronger albums.
Baphomet made damn sure their second effort would elude the majority of death metal listeners, considering their name change to Banished; however, their début, The Dead Shall Inherit, managed to gain significantly more exposure, and is a very strong album and easily one of the better albums released in the early death metal scene, with several features that allow it to beat out some better known members of its competition.
Instrumentally this album is mostly fairly simple, though the quality of execution is tight all round. The guitars riff with great effectiveness and head through tremolo picked and chorded segments with good proficiency, with little in the way of variation in each part and with a very solid synergy with the drums. The bass playing is audible and more or less the same as the guitars, playing equally tightly and providing a solid backing for the rest of instruments. The drums are vary in pace quite considerably but are mostly played in fast double bass patterns with intricate variations and with some slower sections. The vocals are consistently excellent, with low guttural roars that perform a lot more effectively than those in other bands that attempt the same style. The production is very weighty, giving each palm mute on guitar a crushing feel while giving the drums and bass a good deal of clarity while the vocals head above.
The album opens with the predictably crushing
The Suffering, which immediately opens with an awesome pair of riffs after a short intro section, with some great drum work and a good set of tempo changes that set the song on a brutal course.
Through Deviant Eyes likewise opens with a set of excellent riffs, with a use of blast beats in the appropriate areas for emphasis as well as some great bass fills.
Valley Of The Dead opens with a short bass-led section before delving into more groovy, mid tempo riffs that still maintain interest.
Torn Soul opens at high speed in contrast to several other tracks here, with a blast beat dominating much of the beginning of the song, while
Vile Reminiscence also opens quickly before returning to a slower tempo for a suitably crushing effect, with fairly frequent tempo variations keep it viciously powerful and varied.
Age Of Plague likewise features varying speeds and crushing riffs, while album closer
Streaks Of Blood, which was later covered by Dying Fetus, shuffles along at a slow and brutal tempo that makes it one of the best tracks on the album in conjunction with its superior riff quality, while and absolutely crushing breakdown is also featured and tastefully applied.
The main issue with this album is probably that it never quite changes its overall dynamics as an album much. Many of the songs are structured similarly, and while all of them are great tracks, they don't quite provide the variety to keep the album interesting near the end of the album, despite the clear qualities of each individual track. However, the overall album quality is very high and it should easily appease any person searching for quality old school death metal. Certainly this is an underrated album of the American death metal scene of the early 90s and superior to many better recognized albums.
Recommended Tracks:
Through Deviant Eyes
Streaks Of Blood
The Suffering
Valley Of The Dead
Vile Reminiscence
Infection Of Death
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