Stench Of Decay - Stench Of Decay [Compilation]

As as I love the current trends in death metal; massing hordes of bands which channel through the most ominous of overtones, seeking the deepest and most tempestuous faces of evil, sometimes you just want to snap out of that Incantation invocation and dabble your head in something fun, blasting and retro - basically something a little more frivolous than the evil inspections of darkness, something like Stench Of Decay. The group has a a fairly substantial history and discography behind them, and now, thanks to Ektro Records, all of their material, their two premier demos and their latest EP ''Visions Of Death'' is crammed into one single punching assault. Being from Finland, Stench Of Decay have inserted copious gobs of their traditional Finnish death metal elements into a sporadic mixture entwining them with some gnarly Swedeath joints for additional crutch, and that's where the band leaves us: fifty-one minutes of relentless, tempered and volatile old school death metal, fun and exuberant, and still deviating from the majority of retros.

Stench Of Death's formula is aplomb and creative, and it sounds pretty much like when Abhorrence (Fin) and Demigod got together with Dismember/Entombed for a brutal clash in the park, with Bolt Thrower and Asphyx joining in fight from afar. The band's well-thought formula is frankly the only thing you'll hear throughout this compilation, but they've made the raw source credible through morbid operations and gouging and incision instruments, ultimately penning crafty songs with numerous variations each, therefore repetition or boredom is hardly the case here. Stench Of Decay snow their elephantine grooves, their thickly populated Asphyx chugs and their pestilential ruptures if intense, almost convoluted riff collisions, which is impossible not to be captivated. Tempered with rage, and the brutal excursions can be menacing. With only slight production differences in between the tracks work just fine, hammering and plummeting a shower of engrossing primal emissions after and after, continuously and relentlessly,and the only reposes the listener can have are the extremely brief intervals between the songs, and thus, amid boisterous, repulsive incursions like ''Alive And Rotting'' or ''Stench Of Decay'', more steady death/doom leaks such as the carnally forged mid-paced gulper ''Souls Of Possession'', or scrofulous offerings of the numbing elegy ''Creation Of Carnal Lust'', you'll be surely having a hell of time.

Abrasive and punishing, my favorite element on the album was the guitar tone and marvels it produced throughout fifty-one minutes. It's atmospheric and sometimes massive, sometimes crunchy, almost metallic, and while the band was leeching blood of the listener's ears with brief, melody-laden death/doom trudges I always felt some immense nostalgia, particularly because the melodies where highly reminiscent of the archaic melodies that the Finndeath masters made, especially early Sentenced and Convulse. Evoking nostalgia isn't the only thing these Finns excel in, as to boast the brutal bashes of the guitars they've added guttural and deep vocals injections which particularly reek of Demigod with the chubby tone. Despite retaining a sound much more technically driven and complex than many other retros, Stench Of Decay are still ultra-fun to listen to. Seriously, if you even have the slightest love for casual blasts out raw architecture and primitive impacts, sharp drums, or anything entertaining, catchy and crushing about old school death metal to say in the least, you will definitely like this, love it even, if you're obsessed with the crude recordings of Convulse, Demigod, Abhorrence, early Sentenced, Purtenance, etc. The stench awaits.

Highlights:
Souls Of Possession
Alive And Rotting
Where Madness And Decay Began
Creation Of Carnal Lust

Rating: 86,5%