Angel Corpse "Of Lucifer and Lighting" CD

Angelcorpse are the classic example of a high fidelity death metal band. They are one the biggest exponents of the “war death metal” genre and in the past they released excellent albums such as the debut or the following Exterminate. Those were two gems of incredible power and violence. With those albums they established themselves worldwide as a great band with a natural sense of various song writing mixed with the classic violence this genre deserves.
Many considered The Inexorable album as their masterpiece but I don’t agree. That album signed a lack of inspiration in the song writing and the effect was that the songs were not so various as in the past, even if they were always quite good. The production was also flawed in that case but, to me, they started to go down from that period. Well, I was terribly curious about this new effort and here we go again. Their style marks no signs of change or melody, getting straight to the point: brutality.
After the instrumental intro, it’s time for “Antichrist Vanguard” to break in. The production is something I cannot accept for a self proclaimed “war death metal” group: it’s too clean and the guitars sound is strange compared to the past. They are fuzzy, muddy and too Morbid Angel inspired. Anyway that is not bad but it simply doesn’t fit in that group. The blast beats are always one the most important things in this music and the combination of them with the restless double kicks sound is lethal for my heart. This sis so fucking heavy.
The vocals by Pete are unmistakable for malevolence, preserving that black metal component they’ve always had to make them so particular. When the guitars are not played on the power chords, preferring the more high-tonality-passages, they are so loud! For this check out the following “Machinery Of The Cleansing”. The palm muting parts are very well done and the shredding work on the chords is always powerful and precise.
The band is particularly good during the various tempo changes (I never questioned about the technique level of this band) and during the fast, long bass drum parts where we can rest a bit from the inhuman blast beats. Those parts have always a more epic element to create always headbanging rhythms. The solos as usual don’t let me down.
Anyway, there aren’t just good things, because we can find also weak and dull parts like “Extermination Sword” song where the band seems so tired and with no ideas, wanting to create a more structured and less impulsive track. A part from this track and few other not exceptional riffs we can find in some songs, I feel myself to give this album a good mark even if there is the impression that something is missing…it’s always brutal as fuck but they can do better.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...