UMUR
"Thanatos Descends" is the third full-length studio album by US industrial metal act Dead World. The album was released through Malsonus in 1996. It´s the successor to "The Machine" from 1993 although the two full-length studio albums are bridged by the 1994 "This Will Hurt Someone" EP.
Stylistically "Thanatos Descends" is industrial metal. It´s heavy, gloomy, raw, and repetitive in nature and there are also influences from both drone and noise on the album. After the opening track "Warhammer" which is a relatively regular Dead World track, we are for example treated to an almost painful noise track in "Thanatos I". Imagine how it would sound if you recorded a chain saw cutting through steel pipes, backed by gloomy keyboards and eerie low-in-the-mix samples for three full minutes would sound like...I´m pretty sure it would sound like "Thanatos I". Nasty noisy stuff. "Thanatos Descends" unfortunately features both "Thanatos II (Parts 1 & 2)", "Thanatos III (Parts 1 & 2)", "Thanatos IV", and "Thanatos V", which are all noise/drone type tracks, and they aren´t just shorter interludes, but regular full-length tracks.
The industrial metal tracks (there are only 4 of them on this album hidden away between the "Thanatos" noise/drone tracks) sound a little tired and the vocals don´t help as they are sedated and distorted talking/singing. So unfortunately Dead World didn´t leave with a high quality swansong. "Thanatos Descends" is an album which is hard to appreciate if you don´t enjoy noise/drone and it´s also a bit incoherrent with 4 industrial metal tracks and 5 noise/drone tracks placed on the same album. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.