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Dew-Scented - Intermination review



Reviewer:
8.3

24 users:
7.17
Band: Dew-Scented
Album: Intermination
Release date: June 2015


01. Declaration Of Intent
02. On A Collision Course
03. Scars Of Creation
04. Affect Gravity
05. Means To An End
06. Ode To Extinction
07. Demon Seed
08. Power Surge
09. Ruptured Perpetuality
10. Living Lies
11. Atavistic
12. Reborn [feat. Kyle Thomas]
13. Those Who Will Not See [Vio-lence cover][bonus]
14. Survival Reaction [Solstice cover][bonus]
15. Radiation Sickness [Repulsion cover]

Dew-Scented enjoy a position of particular respect and adulation in my metal heart. They were, believe it or not, my very first death metal band, and Inwards remains on heavy rotation as one of the highest pillars in the genre. With album #10, they hit back with a renewed vitality and a violent streak undiminished by conflicting years of experience and personnel changes.

Intermination is now the second album in a row with the same line-up, which has to be some kind of a record for Dew-Scented. Replacing an entire band is like an exchange transfusion: it's risky, could lead to severe complications, and makes it difficult to do anything of any real interest, at least until the initial recover period has transpired. Leif Jensen has done this a few times before, however, and once more makes no difference. Icarus turned out even better than its predecessor, after all, and finally having an ostensibly stable line-up can only benefit Dew-Scented. Intermination makes it so, stepping up the furious mayhem even further. It almost brings a tear to my eye, hearing such a vicious maelstrom of ostentatiously wicked death-thrash from the old war horse that is Dew-Scented.

Delivery can recoup a great deal of power and intrigue lost in the songwriting sessions, and I've found Dew-Scented to produce throat-slitting, gut-detonating albums out of somewhat average material just through sheer force of will. Leif Jensen initially drew me to the band with his apparent attempts to force out his lungs through his throat with every bloody gasp of hysterical, raw noise - a phenomenon which I now view as the direct descendant of John Tardy's trademark style, and an easy way to make a forceful impact without having to become the next Death. Intermination happens to boast some of the strongest material of Dew-Scented's last few albums, and while it doesn't touch the magnificence of Inwards, it does mean that they rely slightly less on the incredible velocity of the performance to get their point across.

Intermination contains everything I love about Dew-Scented, and most things I love about death metal. Some songs tear relentlessly through cold, mechanical, thrashy riffs in the vein of Rigor Mortis or Forté; others drape weirdly organic and alien melodies over crushing chunks of blocky death metal. Whether winding down for a more hardcore-tinted slow train to Brutalsville (population: you) or forcing tandem razor guitars through the shredder at breakneck speed, Intermination kicks like an angry mule named Bruce Lee on PCP. It doesn't appear to have much time for fancy tricks, and yet it seems to touch on a lot of major sounds and styles of the modern death metal scene.

I've been known to hand out good ratings like candy on occasion; I'll admit to being a bit loose with the 8s and 9s now and then, but Dew-Scented have truly earned this. Not that I'm suggesting that my approval is some magnificent bestowment which they should be honored to receive, but I'm incredibly proud and pleased to see that the band that brought me into the genre of death can still slay so thoroughly all these years later. This kind of ludicrously frenzied aural violence makes my heart happy.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 10
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 6
Production: 8





Written on 06.06.2015 by I'm the reviewer, and that means my opinion is correct.


Comments

Comments: 3   Visited by: 165 users
06.06.2015 - 01:52
Rating: 8
ScreamingSteelUS
Editor-in-Chief
I forgot to mention Kyle Thomas's guest spot on "Reborn," but that's easily one of the highlights of the album.
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"Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader

I'm the Agent of Steel.
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06.06.2015 - 17:29
D.T. Metal

"Intermination happens to boast some of the strongest material of Dew-Scented's last few albums, and while it doesn't touch the magnificence of Inwards, it does mean that they rely slightly less on the incredible velocity of the performance to get their point across."

THIS ^^^
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06.06.2015 - 22:55
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Somehow this reminds to me some modern thrash even sound is old school, I hope I am wrong
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Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
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I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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