Review Summary: Dead Beyond Buried occupy a pleasant middle ground between classic death metal brutality and modern technical battery.
The term ‘old school’ is all too often misused in today’s metal scene. Frequently, a band which utilizes a tremolo picked riff here and there, or a vocalist that makes use of guttural roars, is branded as traditional when for the most part their approach is hardly deserving of the association. So it is refreshing when an outfit comes along that can justifiably be labelled as ’old school’. I believe Dead Beyond Buried to be one of these.
Now, this is not to say that the band are unflinchingly habitual in their song writing, yet it is fair to say that they have built their slant on the methods originated by the nineties death metal scene. For example, songs such as ‘A King Amongst Thieves’, with its lurching, sludgy intro have an undeniable Morbid Angel-esque quality, whilst opener ‘Relentless Dead Machine’ is a furious assault of speed picking and blast beats which cannot fail to bring to mind the heyday of Florida’s finest.
It is interesting how the band is able to be a bracing prospect by emphasising a traditional approach, and I would say that it is the tastefulness of the song writing that is the one refreshing aspect they have learned from their peers. Not falling into the ’technical for technical’s sake’ pitfall that many modern death metal outfits do, the tracks contain a high level of musicianship that functions to serve the song and not dazzle us with its complexity. Although, the instrumental performances are indeed impressive, with the dense riffs and aggressive drum work locked in air tight. Yet this mathematical tactic is not all that makes Dead Beyond Buried such an interesting prospect.
The inclusion of some atmospheric touches adds a characteristic dimension to the tracks, with some icy chord progressions scything their way through the aforementioned ’Relentless Dead Machine’ and a dissonant resonance to some of the shrieking vocals, revealing a certain black metal influence that really helps to inject the songs with a certain violent ambience. Indeed, throughout ‘Inheritors Of Hell’, the vocal work is constantly shifting, with the band making use of the whole gamete of death metal styles to create maximum impact, combining the gutturals with the chug and grind sections for utmost brutality and the high pitched screams for when they take flight into some looser, chord driven segments.
‘Inheritors Of Hell’ is a record with enough diversity to satisfy a wide range of extreme metal fans. Dead Beyond Buried occupy a pleasant middle ground between classic death metal brutality and modern technical battery, and represent an honest musical inclination with enough ambition and innovation to be more than a mere homage to their heroes.
