UMUR
"Stop at Nothing" is the 4th full-length studio album by US, Maryland based death metal act Dying Fetus. The album was released through Relapse Records in May 2003. There´s been a massive personnel change since the release of "Destroy the Opposition (2000)", and it´s only band founder/guitarist/vocalist John Gallagher, who remains from the lineup who recorded the predecessor. Drummer Kevin Talley, guitarist John Voyles, and bassist/vocalist Jason Netherton left Dying Fetus to form Misery Index in 2001. Especially the loss of the latter had some impact as Netherton was one of the main composers of the band and one of the two lead vocalists. New in the lineup are Sean Beasley (bass), Vince Matthews (vocals), Mike Kimball (guitars), Erik Sayenga (drums).
While there was a special magic to the previous lineup and their skills were generally through the roof, the new lineup are very well playing too. As far as the vocals go you won´t even notice that there is a new vocalist, and we´re still treated to one deep growling unintelligible vocalist and one slightly more intelligible and aggressive growling vocalist. Stylistically there have been very few changes too...actually I hear none, and Dying Fetus continue to play their brand of brutal technical death metal with the trademark focus on brutal grooves. The band as usual varies pace quite a few times during the tracks though, so while they often play really brutal grooves, there are also plenty of blasting deathgrind parts featured on the album.
The material on the 8 track, 35:39 minutes long album is well written for the style, but to my ears the tracks are generally not as memorable as the case were on the last couple of albums. Dying Fetus releases were never easily accessible material though, and the more spins you give it, the more memorable the material gets. "Stop at Nothing" features a powerful, raw, and detailed sound production, which suits the material well, and upon conclusion it´s another high quality release by Dying Fetus, although it doesn´t quite reach the heights of the two albums which preceded it. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.