I had initially confused this with the band Enmity, a horrible band from somewhere in the United States. But, damn was I surprised when I threw this disc in. An absolutely brutal slab of death metal that would make many of their U.S. counterparts feel a little soft, kind of like when watching a good porno only to have the camera pan to the guy’s face for three minutes. Emeth have put together an impressive album of brutal death metal with a perfect mixture of chaos, grind, and groove.

Emeth share some similarities with countrymen Aborted and Leng Tch’e, from the thick, chaotic nature of Aborted to the outright wild grind of Leng Tch’e. And although the aforementioned bands never really caught my attention, this band really does. It reminds me of a more technical, dare I say "playful" version of California’s Disgorge, with well played sections of brutal grind that are interesting and change so frequently that they rarely get stale. Then, like a barefoot kick to the sack, Emeth breaks into some intense groove and brutality, reminiscent of Soils of Fate and Stabwound. The songs are well thought out, as the sections of groove are interplayed nicely within all of the nasty grind. Surprisingly, some of these sections of slower riffs are atmospheric in nature, either with a nicely fitted solo or some kind of background noise. The riffs are not stale which I kind of expected them to be, especially considering the style that this band plays. It is hard to explain why this is appealing and other bands who attempt this just plain suck ass. The guitars are everywhere, creating a wall of sound, accentuated by the bevy of harmonics and pinch harmonics. But I truly enjoyed the many shredded riffs played higher on the neck. It is an interesting approach, and although not new, it is so well executed it is hard not to dig it. A German band called Infested also play a similar style and Emeth’s album is kind of what I hoped their next release would sound like.

The throaty, regular "angry guy" vocals are refreshing as are the pig squeals during slower sections and they fit the music nicely. The drums are competent although I was not a huge fan of the muted sound. Apparently the album was produced by Daniel Bergstrand who also worked with In Flames and Dimmu Borgir. And to some people, this matters but not to me. It is like telling me about where a hot dog came from while I am ordering it. Just give me the damn thing, let me enjoy it, and I’ll form my own opinions. And so I did the production is done well and I could not envision the band with any other sound.

Overall, an excellent release and it nice to see bands taking a seemingly boring genre, namely European brutal death metal, and sprucing it up quite a bit. Although I may have caused quite a clamor over this last statement, you know its true. Either a band is a bad copy of an American band or just plain sucks. Mind you that I am only talking about brutal death metal and not any other type. Emeth cover all the bases in terms of being a competent and standout-ish band, from soup to nuts. I never really understood what "from soup to nuts" meant, but it has been on my mind and I tried very hard to fit it in this review.

Written By: Double Ds