Having been around for over a decade this German band has released a couple of albums before dropping this third album onto this listener who is unfamiliar with the bands previous efforts. An old school approach is favoured as the album opens with a very short intro on “Systematic Torture”. My initial thoughts were of indifference, the sound is a little tepid, lacking gusto and intensity though the drum sound is formidable. Vocally this has a Benton like style, gutturally low but very clear as the opener sticks to a mid-tempo beat with a scattering of blasting.

I listen to hundreds of death metal albums every year and it is safe to say that whilst this album isn’t going to ignite the planets death metal community it also does the job very well as “Pathogenic Nation” continues the album. The insistent blasting is a little one dimensional, but certainly speedy as the track has a guitar hovering above the tune that almost goes unnoticed and is a nice addition to the bands armoury in song writing. Old school death metal isn’t about continuous blasting, it’s about power and unleashing a seismic shock within the songs as “Pandemic Wings” ably proves by adopting a slower pace with bone drilling riffing and sloth like double kick that has Morbid Angel stamped onto it with good results.

“Cotardious” is a strange one, with its eerie opening riff possessing a slight blackness to it, before the body of instrumentation leaps in to build up the track. The effect is excellent as a spoken vocal is heard setting the scene for the song extremely well as it dips and dives via a lead break. Pushing the density upwards is “Direktive 7” which escalates the tension before wielding a thunderous double kick and brutish riffing assault. Whilst this album is unlikely to set the world afire in death metal terms during 2017 it is a surefooted, gruesome and grisly exposé of bludgeoning deathliness.

(7/10 Martin Harris)

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