I'm a bit old fashioned when it comes to extreme metal. Even though I try to keep up with what's going on I just can't get excited about that high pitched yelping vocal style that seems to be all the rage ever since Gothenborg, Sweden put itself on the metal map. Yes I know, even in the old days people like Mille Petrozza (KREATOR) and Schmier (DESTRUCTION) did something similar, but at least those guys sounded genuinely aggressive, not just grumpy like many of their followers. 'Grumpy' is also a pretty good description of my mood when an overabundance of keyboards is added to the mix. Is it any wonder nowadays 12 year old kids are seen wearing CRADLE OF FILTH-shirts? Of course not, apart from the lyrical content their music IS downright childish.

In times like these it's always a bit of a relief to hear something like this third album by US death metallers VORE. The sound of this Arkansas-based band combines mostly mid-tempo death metal, doom riffs and death grunts. If I'd have to compare I'd say early BOLT THROWER or a musically less primitive AUTOPSY. The album only contains only 8 tracks and barely passes the half hour mark, but in this case that's a good thing because it also means there's no FILLER here (another one of those things that pisses me off about a lot of current releases). In fact, everything about this album is just right. They've got the riffs (simple but effective), the songs, everything a serious devotee of simple, basic, honest roll-up-your-sleeves-death metal could ever want. True, it's not all that original and the production is as basic as can be but then so is VORE's music. It's a good thing we don't have to rely entirely on old farts like BOLT THROWER or GOREFEST for this.

- Van Hoften

OFFICIAL SITE: www.vore.org

RELATED ITEMS: No related articles at this time.