Everscathed, The – Razors of Unrest
Out of the ashes of Enmortem and Corpsevomit, arises the old school death metal stench of The Everscathed. “Razors of Unrest” instantly struck me as very much an early 90’s Florida death metal derivative due to catchy, mid-paced riff ideas and a completely clean bass tone that shines through the mix to give this material a thundering presentation. It’s funny… if this band was active in 1990, I know I would have been all over them. Since so much time has passed and death metal has evolved into a messy hyper speed affair of out of key turbo brutality, death metal as found on “Razors of Unrest” really isn’t that common anymore. Due to the fact this band isn’t from back in the day nor are they something that I found a lot of personal connection to due to living with their music for years, I really went into this album with a skeptics ear. After 4 uninterrupted listens, I finally rewound my brain back 1 decade to fully enjoy The Everscathed’s unfaltering upholding of well-written, blast-less US death metal and it turned out to be quite a breath of fresh air. The Everscathed stick to the mid-paced and heavy push in their delivery and this allows them to put a lot more depth and interesting twists into the guitar work. The fastest they go, is an energetic thrash beat for a touch of much needed dynamics to rise up against the double bass dominant foundation found in all their songs. Vocally, a mid-ranged rasp leads the tattered charge and W. Frickenstein centers his inspiration around the drawn out eeeeyyoooowwwllsss of one John Tardy (Obituary). This influence is most apparent on tracks like “Wounds of Confusion” and “Shackled by Failure”, where he really draws out his phrasing and digs into the harshness and guttural density to sound a lot like Tardy, but with a far cleaner pronunciation of the lyrics. The Everscathed could have been yet another visionless and “brutal” band ala Cannibal Corpse clone # 6000, but they instead chose to center their efforts on writing melody based death metal that is bloated with heart and a conviction for what seems to be a dying art form. “Razors of Unrest” should appeal to those of you that still regularly spin your Obituary, Resurrection and Brutality albums, for all intensive purposes, The Everscathed sound like they were striving to recreate a working blend of all 3 bands. Ground breaking? Nope. Dated, but enjoyable regardless. -Marty
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