Canada's Dead Soul Alliance make no qualms about their mission to deliver old school death metal. Their press release specifically mentions how their music isn't meant to reinvent the wheel. What they do accomplish, in the cassette release 2017's Slaves To The Apocalypse (via Dawning Septic Productions), is a chunky six tracks that should win over fans of Deicide and Obituary, and similar to contemporary acts such as Tomb Mold and Scorched.
The first thing I noticed about these death mongers is that they're a two-piece. Wolven Deadsoul doles out the bass, guitar and vocal carnage, accompanied by the less colorfully named Shawn Carrier on drums. The second thing I noticed was the art work, a black and white dystopian scene that looks like something Turkka Rantanen scribbled in a notebook as he watched Ghost In The Shell. (The artwork is done by Seth Bennett) But enough with looks and presentation, how the hell does Dead Soul Alliance sound?
Slaves To The Apocalypse is workmanlike effort. This is death metal, plain and simple, without any heady aspirations or progressive detours. You will not find any acoustic guitar interludes on this tape.
The opening track "Act Of The Sycophant" blasts off with breakneck guitar shredding, blast beats, and enough pinched harmonics to give Zakk Wylde a heavy metal hard on. The guitars and bass break for a few air tight rests, allowing the listener to gasp a few breaths before the assault continues. The second song, "Forged in Forfeit," is a thrash-paced rager with a fat, downtuned guitar tone, that transported me to the classic Entombed and Dismember works of old. The majority of the tracks begin with audio clips from what sound like cult horror movies, reminding me of the almighty Mortician
My compliments go out to Wolven on his overall guitar tone and arrangement. He's a one man army in the riff department, responsible for bass, lead guitar and rhythm guitar sections. Each of these of these voices are presented in a way where they shine through. I'm floored by the amount of poorly mixed extreme metal acts, where the guitars and bass parts blend into a barrage of distortion. The bass parts in particular possess that special kind of distorted shimmer that Dan Lilker would approve of. Bravo, Deadsoul! Vocally, Mr. Deadsoul's gruff bellows and self-described pterodactyl screams are consistently serviceable. I'd compare his style to Glen Benton's.
Slaves To The Apocalypse's strongest moments to me were the last two tracks, "Formula Misanthropia" and "Forever Against." Both cuts take their time, sinking in the pocket for some groovy, mid-paced death metal hooks, matched by wailing lead solos and dive bombs.
My biggest criticism of Slaves To The Apocalypse, aside from being a bit light in originality, is the distracting amount of pinched harmonics. I get it. They sound cool. But I've listened to enough Incantation, Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel that the novelty has worn off, especially when there are entire sequences of riffs scattered with squeal notes.
This is a well produced and crisp sounding death metal album. These guys know their fatal formula, and have studied the masters. Now, I'm eager to see where they grow their sound into a voice of their own. If you're feeling nostalgic for the death metal, but also curious for new riffs, then Dead Soul Alliance will readily feed your hunger.
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