Walking the Skeletons Path
The debut
album of Mexican Remains wasn’t a love at first listen. Having in mind their
smashing “…of Death” I expected just better release. It is an obvious thing
because progress is something natural and common. And well, after many hours
with “Angels Burned”, I can state most emphatically that Miguel Angel managed
to record such an album. On purpose I wrote ‘Miguel Angel’ as he was
responsible for all music and instruments (excepting drums played by Martin
Martinez from Xipe Totec and several guitar leads). He also recorded and produced
it, and to make a long story short, the sound simply kills as well!
This positive
beginning seems to be a good insight of the things to come. And walking the
path created among skeletons piles, skulls and bones, I arrive at the half-open
gate that invites me to make one more step, into the realm of Remains, where
old school death metal king reigns. Nevertheless I didn’t find any clear influences and ‘in the vein of’,
some famous bands come to my mind while listening to it. The first one is Edge
of Sanity due to vocal lines, some rhythm guitar structures and covering their
song called “Living Hell” (which I treat it as definitely better choice than
dismemberish “On Frozen Fields”), sometimes another Swedish killers like Entombed
(Clandestine era), Grave or Carnage due to overall atmosphere, or Asphyx (just
listen to the fantastic riffs in “Dark Entities”) and Incantation when slower
parts are concerned. Generally speaking it’s very hard to classify “Angels
Burned” and put it into stiff genre framings. So it is way better to write
about Remains as old school death metal act. Definitely this is an advantage,
just like sense crushing production. Miguel didn’t clone Sunlight sound and
walked a bit different way with modern touch, but with the ancient spirit in
the core. The first-rate bass lines supported by ruthless drums are murderous
weapon to fight with silence and daily monotony. Musically I can see the same
as compared to the previous “…of Death”. Again I cannot indicate the best song,
the leader. The whole is maintained in equal high level, even intro with these
characteristic melodies and some light keyboards passages in the background,
isn’t a needful thing or disturber recorded just for having an intro on the
start. No, it smoothly turns into the first proper track and perfectly fits to
the killing whole…
Repeating
myself, this album wasn’t love at the first listen. Don’t get me wrong, I
didn’t think about it as a shit or something like that, yet it seemed to be
worse than previous stuff. And now I’m wondering why? And when the moment of
rupture took place? Ha, I don’t know, yet the album doesn’t let me leave it
alone in the corner of my desk. Anyway, I didn’t lose my patience and now I can
admire these sounds through all the time. Music isn’t complicated. It is played
by simple means, maybe “Remains” song delivers some more complex riffing. This
all-embracing lugubrious mood that is spilled from the speakers makes me push
the button ‘play’ once again. Believe me, there is no way out! The method is
simple: the guitars can create memorable parts, from fast to slower pace,
supported by morbid yet catchy melodies, all bathed in well-thought-out tempo
changing. And don’t demand the titles from me, because I could list the whole
tracklist here. No fillers, just killers, it makes a sense here! Vocally Miguel
follows rather deep growling style, pretty much similar to Dan Swanö, yet it can be diversified by adding some clean voices with absolutely
great performance during slowdown in “Angels Burned” and in the “Remains” song.
Shortly about guitar leads, it is served in four songs only, what a pity,
because I like them very much, especially from “Bringers of Death” divided into
three parts. All these elements paint a real picture, without useless and
unwanted things and colors.
Writing
something on the end, yes, I’m impressed. I didn’t expect such a great release,
however I am not going to claim this Mexican monster is at least a bit
original. But! I do not search for any originality here, yet it has enormous
strength to play and slaughter the armless senses, what is more, Miguel Angel
has balls to unleash superior old death metal. His devotion to the style has
given these so desirable and juicy fruits. And as compared to “…of Death”, he
did a step forward, the band develops and expands its deathly charm, still
basing on well-known patterns. Since this year Miguel managed to complete a
regular line-up, and the next slab is planned to be spewed into the bowels of
the underground. Being united under the rotten banner of ancient death metal,
Remains join the lethal and obscure legions that create present-day metal scene.
And I’m telling you, I can’t wait for the next band’s attack…
90/100
-Tlacaxipehualiztli
(written on November, 2014)
No comments:
Post a Comment