Don't you just love it when everything is right? Yes, this is a death metal album, often nudging towards grindcore and loaded with hardcore punk influences. Brutal guttural vocals, blasting drums and fierce riffs turn the whole into thirteen heart attack causing musical obliterations. I can see the moshpits forming, I can see the crowdsurfers climbing on stage.
Monastery Dead hail from Russia and have been around since 2004. Several line-up changes and three albums later later the band has great plans for the future. I certainly hope they can make those plans come trough because this is a damn crushing piece of work. Fans of bands like Napalm Death, Dying Fetus or Debauchery will undoubtedly appreciate the sheer speed and aggression that these Russians disgorge.
Highlights are the highly chaotic but massive 'Sublimation', 'Voracity of Madness', 'Lie' and (for me personally) the strangely atmospheric 'Generation:Rats', even including some minimal keyboards and post-metal influences. That versatility is what makes this album so interesting. Most of the times the band throws some sickening slaps of brutal grind in your face and on other occasions they prove to be technical experts, capable of performing any extreme genre.
So yes, this is a well-taken care of piece of extreme metal that very few headbangers could resist. Plenty of variation, plenty of intense musical ass kicking, what else could a death metal freak possibly want? So check this out, you won't be disappointed.
Serge