With a name like Mr Death, six tracks torn through in just under twenty minutes and the pun-laden title of ‘death suits you’, it’s fair to say that you shouldn’t expect an easy ride from this release from Agonia records. And you’d be right not to. Following a brief, doom-filled intro the band rip into ‘march to the dark’, a straight up, old-school death metal blast that punches hard to the gut with its pummelling drums, searing guitars and vocals buried in the mix. It’s heavy stuff, and well executed to meaning that if you have a penchant for all things deathly then this could be the release for you.
Of course, Mr Death were always likely to be something special. Featuring former members of the legendary Tiamat and Expulsion as well as current members of Treblinka, there’s a heritage here, a legacy of excellent metal and the members more than live up to their promise with this belting release. With the first track serving to crush you under its sheer weight, ‘on day 51’ is even better. Slower, harder and filled with a latent menace, the only slight criticism is that the vocals are often so low in the mix they serve more as another element of sound rather than a coherent set of lyrics instructing you in the ways of darkness. The guitars, however, sound excellent. Utterly brutal, raw in the extreme and yet imbued with a hefty bass end that gives the whole recording a serious heft, the guitars sole job is to smash the listener repeatedly from beginning till end and they sound amazing. Third track ‘curse of the masses’ is a fast moving, furious blast that could quite happily go head to head to slayer in the intensity stakes while the chorus is a ferocious melee of snatched screams and seething riffage. Possibly the best track here, although they all stand out as brutal, exciting examples of the genre, ‘’the plague and the world it made’ has to follow and it says a lot about the consistent skill of Mr Death that it succeeds. Another blisteringly fast exercise in hatred, the vocals are still buried in the mix, but the overall sound is one of fevered insanity complete with ridiculously heavy half-time break downs that send the listener reeling with their overwhelming sense of weight.
Another highlight of this far-too-short promise of things to come (this disc serves merely as a teaser for the full-length album due next year) is ‘Strandead’ which redefines heavy and finds all but the fiercest acts limping home with their tale firmly between their legs. This is the real deal, blisteringly heavy, untamed and brutal, the whole thing sounds as if it was recorded live, with each and every giving their all to create this thoroughly malevolent whole. With ‘celestial suffering’ the whole thing is over as quickly as it started and you wonder how twenty minutes could feel so short. The final track opens with a heavy Black Sabbath-style riff before heading off in a cloud of dust for one last, brutally fast charge through traditional death metal pastures.
If Mr Death are capable of delivering a mini-album of such quality the mind boggles at what their second full-length will offer. The only criticism is that the vocals are, perhaps, a little low. Aside from that, this is a near-flawless death metal release that will see fans of the genre going mental. Seriously heavy, perfectly recorded guitars buzz away like chainsaws, the bass slams through you and the drumming is uniformly excellent. The final, frenzied conclusion to the disc is merely the icing on this most devilish of cakes and the whole thing is designed to send your adrenalin levels through the roof. A fist-punching, gut wrenching, putrid blast of pure death metal, it doesn’t get any better than Mr Death.
