Vehemency
Zombiefication, another rather new death metal group from Mexico, hails the 90s Swedish old school death metal scene with devotion. Everything, from the d-beats to the thick and punishing guitar sound, their debut album Midnight Stench reeks of its influences, but hey, not everyone think it’s automatically a bad thing. At least me, and those others who still find pleasure from the same patterns that the innovators crafted twenty years ago.
Considering the consciously stagnant and uncompromising style, there’s no need to go into deep details (and I don’t even know if I could as it’s hard to differentiate some tracks after hearing a ton of albums in this vein recently), but there are some moments when the Midnight Stench does visit more innovative territories. One of these is the slow-paced ”Sleepless Mutter” which vaguely flirts with melodic doom metal, a refreshing highlight in the middle of all the savage killing.
In all aspects, Midnight Stench sounds crushing: the production, that has a slight reverb, sounds massive yet raw, and the instruments are handled with professional touch though it never sounds sterile nor too careful. An album full of ass-kicking riffage, that almost evokes a picture of a primeval, bestial man with its basic instincts, needs no philosophical analyzing. By now, you know that Midnight Stench offers and you know if you’re interested or not. I might personally require something more from an album that would receive the mark of a brilliant record, but at what it does, Midnight Stench is no worse than many of its current European brothers.