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A few years ago it seemed like old school death metal was dead and buried as a new wave of technical and brutal death metal gained in popularity.  Death metal fans grew up and moved on, or simply grew disinterested in the death metal they grew up with in the early 90s.  For more than a decade it seemed the early days of death metal were dead and buried forever, never to be played again.  It wasn’t until a few years ago that the corpses began to twitch in their tombs and old school bands came back to life and with them came the fans who’d become increasingly hungry for death metal that was more substance than style.

The blazing riffs, blast beats and inhumanly guttural gurgling of the bands who took their place was entertaining at first, but the novelty started to wear off.  The music lacked the spirit of the bands who wrote material that can only be described as “classic” and “legendary.”  While the first generation of death metallers crawled out of their coffins and got back up on stage to play their old classic tunes for a new generation of death metal fans, many of those original musicians were eager to write new music in tribute to the old school, and to push that style forward and see just how far they could take it.

One of old school death metal’s biggest supporters is Razorback Records.  While the label gained prominence in the underground, and could easily be one of the top selling labels if they’d signed one or two bands outside of their “bread and butter,” Billy Nocera has never been willing to compromise and release albums he wasn’t a fan of and 100% committed to promoting.  His interest is in old school death and doom metal and that’s the material he’s stuck to releasing and he’s developed a loyal cult following for sticking with what he loves.  When Razorback Records releases an album, you know it’s going to be an old school album and you’re going to buy it, without even having listened to it or heard of the band, because the label’s reputation for signing quality acts is that good.

One of his most recent signings is Swedish old school death metallers Revolting, consisting of Roger “Rogga” Johansson (Paganizer, Bone Gnawer, Ribspreader, Putrevore and a dozen or so other bands), “Grotesque” Tobias and “Mutated” Martin.  This fiendish group set out to create an homage to old school death metal in the vein of Carnage and Impetigo, while incorporating their love of 80s horror flicks.  With a logo by horror comic artist Jeff Zornow (who did artwork and/or logos for Horrific, Gama Bomb, Gruesome Stuff Relish and Blood Freak, and the Teufel’s Tomb bone logo and t-shirt design among many others), cover art by Putrid (he’s done cover art for Cianide, Impetigo, Cardiac Arrest, Blood Freak and more) and the lyrics of Billy Nocera, Elektrokutioner of Decrepitaph and regular Razorback Records lyrical contributor Tanya “Boargirl” Sim, this group of demented freaks have stuck to their vision and created a fitting tribute to old school death and horror!

Dreadful Pleasures is a half hour of relentless, infectious and downright entertaining old school death metal.  The album’s nine tracks contain an endless swarm of thick crunchy riffs, rumbling bass, up tempo drum beats and raspy snarled vocals.  The material is relatively simplistic, which fits the theme and is consistent with the musicians who inspired this album.

The music Revolting create has the thick meaty riffs of early Dismember, Carnage, Bolt Thrower, Grave and Unleashed mixed with the American horror metal style of Autopsy, Impetigo and Rottrevore without sounding like they’re ripping off any of the aforementioned bands.  The one thing that sets Revolting apart from their old school influences is Dreadful Pleasures has a very solid production, where each riff, drum beat, bass line and snarl is easily identifiable.  In the late 80s/early 90s the productions of those classic releases tended to have a great amount of problems, but 20 years of death metal recording experience has come a long way in augmenting the music, rather than muffling it like many old albums were unfortunately plagued with.

By no means are Revolting re-inventing the genre, they’re simply taking an existing corpse and swapping out the brains, limbs and guts with parts that fit from other creations and sew it all together as their own horrific beast.  The downside to this is that originality and creativity aren’t high on Revolting‘s list of priorities and the song structures throughout the album’s nine tracks are pretty consistent and repetitive, but the music is just so fun to listen to that it’s impossible to listen to without getting swept up in the simplistic heaviness of the material.

This definitely isn’t an album for the brutal death metal-only crowd, there are no slammin’ rhythms or “sick” breakdowns or inhuman inhaled guttural vocals that sound like the singer is gurgling in a toilet.  This album also isn’t going to appeal to fans of technical/progressive death metal who feel an album isn’t worth their attention if it isn’t over-produced and contains way more sophisticated riffing than is enjoyable or necessary.

Simply put, Dreadful Pleasures is an old school death metal album, by old school death metal fans for old school death metal fans.  If you’ve bought, listened to and worship offerings by Horrific, Fondlecorpse, Decrepitaph, Crypticus, Lord Gore, Frightmare and Blood Freak, you’re going to love this album.  That’s not to say this album is an essential purchase, you can probably live without having heard it, but you’ll be missing out on a really fun album if you do.  If you don’t appreciate the early works of Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Impetigo, Autopsy, Rottrevore, Unleashed and Bolt Thrower then you definitely won’t like Dreadful Pleasures.  You’re probably also a gay retard.

Review byTeufel