Avulsed pays homage to its roots.
Not content with simply offering us its own compositions, the Spanish band founded in 1991 by Dave Rotten (vocals, Christ Denied, Holycide, Putrevore, Yskelgroth…) and now joined by Alek Sanders (bass, Umbraeternum, ex-Sepulcration), Alejandro Lobo (guitar, Holycide, Dissonath), Víctor Pastor (guitar, ex-Endernity), and Julian Neuromancer (drums, Regent Death, Umbraeternum), pays homage to its roots on Nordic Embryogenesis, an album of covers.
First off, we must pay tribute to the eleven bands featured on this album, all of which are clearly Old School gems, and even as a huge fan of this style, I’ve discovered a few of them for the first time, and I thank Avulsed for that. In terms of sound, we start with Expunging Mortalities, a track by the Finnish band Funebre that sets a perfectly heavy tone before striking like a colossus and delivering simple yet unsettling riffs to kick things off, even letting the leads add that eerie touch before moving on to No Canonization by Carbonized, which offers a much more in-your-face and aggressive sound than the previous track. We find that same morbid touch again amid the waves of violence, just as on Heroes in Godly Blaze, a great discovery from the Finnish band Adramelech, who deliver a heady dissonance, creating an intriguing sense of chaos when listening to the original track while the atmosphere shifts completely with Abduction of Limbs, a track by the Norwegian band Old Funeral, who hit hard with fast, direct riffs just the way we like them. The growls are plentiful, as are the accelerations from the rhythm section, which treat us to a feast before shifting to a Death/Doom track on Spawn of Flesh from Macabre End and their HM-2-fueled Sweden, offering a sound as filthy as possible with putrid roots. The acceleration on Heavenly Grace, a cover of Amputation, stands out for its aggression, a track where blast beats reign supreme, making no compromises except for the piercing leads, but we’re already back to a sense of oppression on Why Do I Watch the Dawn? by Cartilage, a Finnish band that also makes no concessions to anyone and lays down its uncompromising riffs, yet is the only one to offer us a touch of melancholy. Abhoth’s Recantation of the Forsaken delivers a strong Doom/Death metal vibe, allowing the band to play with dissonance and oppression as well as violence, before we move on to Female Sabbath, created by the titan Phlegethon, which the Spanish band perfectly conveys through their rage. We pick up with the piercing riffs of The Exordium by Crematory, a now-defunct band that takes everything you’d expect from a ’90s death metal band and spits it right back in your face, before Abhorrence’s Pestilential Mists delivers a proper finishing touch with its exquisite heaviness.
Nothing new from Avulsed, but rather a dose of Old School Death Metal that’s a pleasure to hear when you know the band’s reputation! Paying homage to one’s peers is one thing, Nordic Embryogenesis is another and we can only applaud the performance!