Phil fasciana sent me an advance copy of ENVENOMED and i was completely blown away by it...it is definitely the band's best album to date. the opening track "homicidal rant" is a catchy uncompromising miserable masterpiece. dave culross has improved his playing by not only getting faster but also becoming more tempo-consistent with fills, double bass, and his trademark human-metronome blast beats. brett hoffman's voice is without a doubt the sickest sounding gurgle i have ever heard in my life. although i would like to hear him one day return to his early day almost-melodic style heard on "the ten commandments", there is no lack of vocal firepower on ENVENOMED especially on the track "night of the long knives", where he belts out the most painful ear-piecing scream ever executed by any death metal vocalist. bottom line...this guy knows what he's doing and he does it well. guitarists phil fasciana and rob barrett are tighter and clearer than ever, and this time bassist gordan simms is finally heard in the mix unlike 1998's underproduced yet classic album THE FINE ART OF MURDER. other high points of ENVENOMED...the "manic demise"-style track "kill zone" and the catchy "deviant's march". if i had to say something negative about this record just to be fair, i would mention the low mix and lack of bite of the rythym guitars. also missing from the band's former formula are brett's intelligent and well crafted lyrics not heard since the band's quirky 1993 effort, STILLBORN. if this makes sense, a perfect record is never "perfect". ENVENOMED is a masterpiece and everyone that can handle death metal should get this. check out my other reviews of MALEVOLENT CREATION coming soon.... by OddityTracks:
1. Homicidal Rant
2. Night Of The Long Knives
3. Kill Zone
4. Halved
5. Serial Dementia
6. Bloodline Severed
7. Pursuit Revised
8. Conflict
9. Viral Release
10. The Deviant's March
11. Envenomed
D-load album :-) http://lix.in/afc243
(( pw = hmbreed ))
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