UMUR
"It Never Ends..." is the second full-length studio album by Danish death metal act Maceration. The album was released through Emanzipation Productions in November 2022. Maceration was formed in the early 1990s as a death metal project by Dan Swanö (working under his Day Disyraah pseudonym), then Invocator members Jakob Schultz and Jacob Hansen, and Lars Bangsholt (Iconoclasm). One Swede and three Danes. They released the "A Serenade of Agony" debut full-length studio album in 1992 through the Progress Red Label, but it was a one-off project and nothing was heard from Maceration (although the members continued to work on other projects) again until the release of this sophomore studio album many years down the line. Schultz and Bangsholt (both guitars) remain from the original lineup and Swanö also guests on vocals (and handles the production of the album), but Jacob Hansen does not participate on this release. New in the lineup are Robert Tengs (bass) and Rasmus Schmidt (drums).
Stylistically this is pretty standard quality old school death metal. To begin with I couldn´t even tell that it was Swanö growling, but after a while I began to recognise some of his trademark phrasing and overall vocal style. His delivery here is generally a little one-dimensional though, and a little more aggression and emotion would have been nice. The instrumental part of the music is well performed, but there´s little here which will surprise or excite a seasoned old school death metal fan beyond what you can expect from a project like this. The sound production is professional, powerful, and detailed, and as such it suits the material well. When that is said a more gritty and raw sounding production job would have made the material more intense. It all sounds a bit too safe here.
So upon conclusion "It Never Ends..." continues the standard quality death metal of the debut. The music doesn´t sound much like the material featured on the debut album though, and Maceration isn´t a band with a musical identity that you are able to recognise immediately. It´s not a bad quality release by any means, but it struggles to stand out on the scene. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.
