UMUR
"Exterminate! Annihilate! Destroy!" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish/British death metal act Down Among the Dead Men. The album was released through Cyclone Empire in November 2015. Down Among the Dead Men was formed in 2013 by prolific Swedish musician Rogga Johansson (Paganizer, Demiurg, Ribspreader, The Grotesquery...among others) and former Benediction and Bolt Thrower vocalist Dave Ingram. They released their self-titled debut full-length studio album in 2013.
Not surprisingly "Exterminate! Annihilate! Destroy!" more or less continues where the debut album left off, with a hardcore punk influenced death metal style. There´s generally a little less punk and a bit more old school death metal in the sound this time around though, but that´s details because we´re still exposed to fast D-beat drumming, relatively simple brutal riffs, and Dave Ingram unmistakable growling roar in front. The album also features a couple of guest vocal performances. Most notably by Kam Lee (Massacre, The Grotesquery, Bone Gnawer) who performs vocals on the cover of "Forged In Fire" by Anvil. An interesting choice for a cover song as Dave Ingram also did a cover of that song with his former band Benediction...
...and just to get it out of the way, this cover of "Forged In Fire" doesn´t reach the masterful Benediction version at all. Kam Lee lacks bite and conviction here. The rest of the material on "Exterminate! Annihilate! Destroy!" is of a fairly standard quality and what I´d pretty much call Rogga Johansson death metal by the numbers. The musicianship is decent, the performances are solid, the songwriting professional but very standard for the genre, and the sound production is decent, but not the type of production which enhances the music more than normal. So all in all "Exterminate! Annihilate! Destroy!" is one of the more standard releases featuring Rogga Johansson. Enjoyable while it plays, but quickly forgotten when it´s over. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.