Excoriate "On Pestilent Winds..." Cassette

So, you like Pestilence's "Consuming Impulse" do you? What about some early Asphyx? Old Sepultura? Imagine one band playing a hybrid of these bands' styles, and that would be Germany's Excoriate. They have managed to create one crushing death metal record in total old school style. Unfortunately, the band called it quits right after recording this album, but at least it's finally out.
The riffs here really reek of early Pestilence as I have mentioned previously. Just check out the title track, or "Poisoned by Darkness". If that's not enough, the vocalist sounds strikingly similar to Martin van Drunen, which is fine by me. There's lots of interplay between the vocal and riff patterns, showing that they put some thought and creativity into their work. Some of the other tracks, like "From Morbid Ruins" play around with some more melodic sounding riffs, but still sound haunting and, well, morbid.
One thing that is pretty unique here is the production, specifically the drums. The bass drum really thumps, and the snare and toms are very boomy. I like this addition to this record, it gives it some character. The guitars are recorded well. Their nice and distorted, but the riffs are able to come through quite easily.
Excoriate pays tribute to their roots with a deadly cover of Sepultura's "Mayhem" on this record. If one wasn't actually aware of it, they might miss that it's a cover, just because it fits in with the rest of the songs here so well. They do a great job at taking Sepultura's primitive aggression and combining it with their European brutality.
It's really too bad these guys broke up, because this is album displays a firm understanding in what death metal should sound like. They don't really cover any new ground that death metal hasn't done before, but Excoriate certainly prove they can write coherent songs and really deadly riffs. Regardless, this is one of the years better releases that I can't help but listen to all the time.

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