Deathhammer
2012 Century Media
Asphyx waste no time on their latest album. No atmospheric intro, no movie samples, just a headlong dive straight into their style of death metal. Personally, I would have switched the order of the title track and opener "Into the Timewastes," just because Martin van Drunen's exclamation of, "This is true death metal, ya bastards!" would have been better right up front at the start, rather than on the second track. But that's just me. both of these songs are fairly fast for Asphyx, and it's not until the third track, "Minefield," that we get into the death/doom aspect of the band. Finally. This is where things get heavy. One thing I love about Asphyx is that they don't progress. Or at least they don't progress in the usual sense of the term. Here, "progress" means going darker and heavier. Yet at the same time, if you had no knowledge of the band, but were handed this album along with "The Rack" and "Last One on Earth," you wouldn't be able to tell what order they were released in. That's the mindset the members of Asphyx have. Stay true to what you've done before. I thank them for it. About the only real true complaint I have here is that the production on "Deathhammer" is a little too much on the bright side of things. I expected a much murkier production, and I know I'm not the only one who has noticed this. All in all though, 2012 has barely begun and we've already got a strong candidate for album of the year.
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