Review by Elijah on March 13, 2020.

People always argue about which album of Chris Barnes era is the best, and everyone always seems to put Butchered At Birth in last place, which I don't understand at all. The first 4 CC albums are all obvious classics, but this album is the one that stands out the most, and is the heaviest and best in every way possible. Although this album is popular, it’s still highly underrated by numerous death metal fans. Cannibal has always been trying to get that sick, disgusting, and downright wrong feel ever since they formed the band, and on this album they've truly done that. Every single thing about this record is nasty and sick in the best way ever!

First of all, let’s start with the artwork, two zombie doctors dissecting an unborn baby from the decaying pregnant mother. This cover art already makes this album great. You don't even have to listen to this album, one look at this cover and you already know it’s gonna be damn great once you get into it. The music. The guitar sound grindy and disgusting which is perfect, the drums sound tight yet deep, which backs up that rotten sound the guitars give off, the bass playing of Alex Webster is there, more points for that, you gotta have that thick, present bass in death metal, especially a brutal, heavy as fuck death metal album like this one. The music here fits Cannibal Corpse's lyrical aspect and theme perfectly, no other album describes CC better than Butchered At Birth.

This album is also extremely underrated. With an album like Butchered at Birth, Cannibal presents themselves at their most extreme form. After their debut Eaten Back To Life, they come back with something even better. Barnes started to experiment with sexually violent lyrics on this album, and the band made their instruments sound heavier and nastier to fit his lyrics. There can’t be songs called 'Meathook Sodomy' or 'Covered in Sores', without the perfect music to fit the lyrical content. The music is the backbone to the vocals, the vocals being there to describe the ultimate torture that is happening. Literally every aspect of this album isn’t disappointing, every single thing lives up to itself, no matter what it is, or however it may come off as.

It confuses me when people talk bad about this album, people will say "The production is bad, there’s nothing that special about it, the guitar tone is monotone and bland, the drums sound bad, etc." Isn't that what we want in death metal??? Especially with an album like with lyrics these extreme and an album name and cover that brutal. If this album comes off as brutal, gory, and nasty, the music should be the same exact way, I’m not complaining about how this album sounds at all, because it's exactly how it SHOULD sound. This is obviously a gem in classic death metal becuase once again, this is an album that lives up to its name and doesn’t disappoint in the slightest. This record also helped start out the brutal death metal genre as well. Heavier vocals, unique guitar sound, machine gun drums that play fast as hell, good bass, everything. The album itself inspires tons of new bands and etc. to learn from.

Look at what we have here, a perfectly brutalist album that is great in every way possible, and included with that, an album that goes in 2 different directions, meaning it inspires 2 different genres, death metal, AND brutal death metal. How can this album suck in any way when these factors are in place? When I think of the TRUE Cannibal Corpse I think of the Butchered At Birth era. The heaviest, brutalist, and disgustingly amazing era of Cannibal Corpse. Once again, I seriously don't understand how Butchered At Birth isn’t their most popular album, this is the band's peak!

When I got sick of every CC album, this album always stuck with me. Butchered At Birth never got annoying or old once. If you wanna listen to some GOOD Cannibal Corpse, listen to this, and if you're a new fan of the band, START WITH THIS ALBUM.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Review by Felix on January 21, 2021.

Cernunnos, the multi-instrumentalist who runs Meuchelmord, is not lazy. In 2019 he presented the strong Waffenträger album, in 2020 he released a new version of a former full-length and now he puts Mordmelodien on the table. In a nutshell, everybody who liked Waffenträger cannot go wrong with Mordmelodien. The artist did not change his approach and he still has enough good ideas in terms of song-writing. 'Waffenweihe', opened by blast beats and pointed guitars, is great during verse and chorus, but the surprisingly melodic instrumental part with the fantastic, everything controlling lead guitar makes the album’s first bone-crusher even better. 'Schwarzes Ehrenfeld' is in no way inferior to 'Waffenweihe'. It is similarly designed and devastates everything in its surroundings with strict lines, but melodic elements as well.

The Meuchelmord-man is not able to deliver tracks of this excellent degree exclusively. Slower tunes like 'Treibjagd' give the nagging voice more room to spread its vibes, but their class depends on the melodies and riffs. Admittedly, he does not only serve up delicatessen. 'Dem Ross zur Wehr' is absolutely convincing with its pretty relaxed tremolo picking and its excellent unfolding melodies, while the aforementioned 'Treibjagd' remains vapid. However, when having a look at the big picture, Meuchelmord have taken the next step. The songs do not differ in terms of style, but in terms of quality in comparison to those of 'Waffenweihe'. Most of them come to the point directly while scoring with a very exciting connection between hateful atmosphere and natural power. The entire album sounds evil and even the pretty melancholic riffing of 'Monument' darkens the sky. Cernunnos is not able to give the scene new impulses, but the scene is alive and healthy. It does not need a doctor and so it is more important that he has forged many stable tunes that do not lack class. By the way, 'In Ketten' belongs to these high quality pieces, among other things due to its brilliant break at 3:48 which adds a further aroma to the song.

Finally, the album is well produced. The mix is easily comparable with that of the full-length from 2019. Okay, the listener is not confronted with imperial heaviness, but with a sharp and stubborn vileness. Given this situation, only a few details remain mysterious. Why did Cernunnos select such a lame artwork after the very stylish one he used for Waffenträger? And is it a contractual obligation for each band of Purity Through Fire to play a song of another PTF combo at the end of the album – remember Mavorim’s Minenwerfer cover? I can only speculate. But what I do know is that I can recommend Mordmelodien without reservation.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Review by Felix on March 22, 2020.

Italy was once a sunny country, but the growing number of noise making musicians is working hard to cover the land with darkness. The heirs of Necrodeath and Bulldozer try to take the land by storm, regardless whether they are called Violentor, Blindeath, Baphomet's Blood or, naturally, Surge Assault (and the list could well become an endless one). The latter have released a debut that puts a stoke in the wheel of those guys who say that black metal and thrash are no longer exciting. Those naysayers whine that these sub genres do not deliver new aspects. How tragic! Well, at the same time they are sitting in their pub, drinking their ten-thousandth beer and enjoy the fact that it tastes exactly like it has always tasted before... Yes, things are quite easy: if you like the formula itself, you like to get new stuff which is precisely based on this formula. Good news, Surge Assault know the recipe for suspenseful black thrash hammers, and they perform them with an evasive freshness.

Of course, the Italian squadron is roughly comparable with other black thrash combat units. At the end of the day, all bands of the pretty narrow-minded bastard scene are more or less comparable with each other. However, the here presented formation does not follow the most primitive approach. Already the durations of the single songs indicate that Surge Assault are not interested in stealing our time with awkward, quickly compiled compositions. Thus, the listener is never at risk to be confronted with overly simple or even insubstantial songs. The opposite is true. Surge Assault present well designed tracks without neglecting the necessary degree of spontaneity and impulsiveness. This means that the lead vocalist is not afraid of an ugly (yet totally convincing) performance and the instrumentalists are aware of the fact that high velocity ennobles each album of the sub-genre. Yet they also do not shy away from powerful mid-tempo sequences. In terms of black thrash, the six minutes of 'Whoreship Me' shape an almost epic number and exactly this tune is kicked off by mercilessly howling guitars that do not strive for high-speed. Do not get me wrong, the song has some fast-paced parts as well. Yet this mixture shows the entire force of the Italians. They do not overload the pieces with tempo changes, weird lines and breaks, but they integrate more than one riff per song. Thus, fans of formations such as Nifelheim should quickly lend an ear to Lust & Misery.

Equipped with an overwhelming dose of currishness and a strong will, the non-fickle band makes excellent use of the usual tools in order to create a homogeneous and authentic album. One can feel their juvenile enthusiasm, the lust for destruction and, to my surprise, the mature degree of their technical skills. Hence follows that the full-length offers an intensive, fanatic and sensational listening experience. Tracks like 'In Hell from Earth' are really forged in hellfire. Indeed, Surge Assault know, although they do not have much in common with these guys at all, the old title from Heathen's second album: mercy is no virtue. With this in mind, the band commutes between total destruction ('Anti Human Black Thrash') and rather occult spheres (for example, the beginning of 'Infernal Riot') while avoiding any sort of banality and triviality.

Finally, the fact that the songs are presented with a heavy, hard and surprisingly modern sound matches the approach of the band. Thus, I cannot identify any kind of serious deficiencies and I hope that Surge Assault are heading for a lasting career - whatever the word "career" may mean in terms of black thrash metal. Anyway, it is not enough to say that the band has an enormous potential. No, better still: Surge Assault attack with an absolutely perfect debut. This is the blackened Italian version of "Bonded by Blood", a mind-blowing work that would take the scene by storm in a fairer world. From the first tone of the opener to the last tone of the closer, which delivers inter alia concise gang vocals ("Hey you Satan"), everything deserves the highest applause. Italy, I am sure, will fall into darkness.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Review by Felix on March 22, 2020.

Italy was once a sunny country, but the growing number of noise making musicians is working hard to cover the land with darkness. The heirs of Necrodeath and Bulldozer try to take the land by storm, regardless whether they are called Violentor, Blindeath, Baphomet's Blood or, naturally, Surge Assault (and the list could well become an endless one). The latter have released a debut that puts a stoke in the wheel of those guys who say that black metal and thrash are no longer exciting. Those naysayers whine that these sub genres do not deliver new aspects. How tragic! Well, at the same time they are sitting in their pub, drinking their ten-thousandth beer and enjoy the fact that it tastes exactly like it has always tasted before... Yes, things are quite easy: if you like the formula itself, you like to get new stuff which is precisely based on this formula. Good news, Surge Assault know the recipe for suspenseful black thrash hammers, and they perform them with an evasive freshness.

Of course, the Italian squadron is roughly comparable with other black thrash combat units. At the end of the day, all bands of the pretty narrow-minded bastard scene are more or less comparable with each other. However, the here presented formation does not follow the most primitive approach. Already the durations of the single songs indicate that Surge Assault are not interested in stealing our time with awkward, quickly compiled compositions. Thus, the listener is never at risk to be confronted with overly simple or even insubstantial songs. The opposite is true. Surge Assault present well designed tracks without neglecting the necessary degree of spontaneity and impulsiveness. This means that the lead vocalist is not afraid of an ugly (yet totally convincing) performance and the instrumentalists are aware of the fact that high velocity ennobles each album of the sub-genre. Yet they also do not shy away from powerful mid-tempo sequences. In terms of black thrash, the six minutes of 'Whoreship Me' shape an almost epic number and exactly this tune is kicked off by mercilessly howling guitars that do not strive for high-speed. Do not get me wrong, the song has some fast-paced parts as well. Yet this mixture shows the entire force of the Italians. They do not overload the pieces with tempo changes, weird lines and breaks, but they integrate more than one riff per song. Thus, fans of formations such as Nifelheim should quickly lend an ear to Lust & Misery.

Equipped with an overwhelming dose of currishness and a strong will, the non-fickle band makes excellent use of the usual tools in order to create a homogeneous and authentic album. One can feel their juvenile enthusiasm, the lust for destruction and, to my surprise, the mature degree of their technical skills. Hence follows that the full-length offers an intensive, fanatic and sensational listening experience. Tracks like 'In Hell from Earth' are really forged in hellfire. Indeed, Surge Assault know, although they do not have much in common with these guys at all, the old title from Heathen's second album: mercy is no virtue. With this in mind, the band commutes between total destruction ('Anti Human Black Thrash') and rather occult spheres (for example, the beginning of 'Infernal Riot') while avoiding any sort of banality and triviality.

Finally, the fact that the songs are presented with a heavy, hard and surprisingly modern sound matches the approach of the band. Thus, I cannot identify any kind of serious deficiencies and I hope that Surge Assault are heading for a lasting career - whatever the word "career" may mean in terms of black thrash metal. Anyway, it is not enough to say that the band has an enormous potential. No, better still: Surge Assault attack with an absolutely perfect debut. This is the blackened Italian version of "Bonded by Blood", a mind-blowing work that would take the scene by storm in a fairer world. From the first tone of the opener to the last tone of the closer, which delivers inter alia concise gang vocals ("Hey you Satan"), everything deserves the highest applause. Italy, I am sure, will fall into darkness.

Rating: 10 out of 10