UMUR
"The Age Of The Offended" is the fifth full-length studio album by Norwegian death metal act Cadaver (the sixth if you count the 2001 Cadaver Inc album as part of the band´s discography). The album was released through Nuclear Blast in July 2023. It´s the successor to "Edder & Bile" from November 2020, which was a comeback album for Cadaver after a 16 year long recording break. Band founder Neddo (guitars, bass, vocals) enlisted prolific drummer Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth, Aborted, Scarve, Soilwork...etc.) and created a duo lineup and it´s the same duo lineup who has recorded "The Age Of The Offended".
After a short intro ("Sycophants Swing") the first "regular" track "Postapocalyptic Grinding" may have you believe that "The Age Of The Offended" is just a continuation of "Edder & Bile" as it´s similar in style to the sharp, aggressive, and fast-paced death metal of the preceding album, but the further you get into the album, you´ll come to realise that Cadaver have done what they always do...create a unique album which somehow still ends up sounding unmistakably like them. It´s actually mostly the production values which are somewhat similar between the two albums and of course the core style, but Cadaver make sure to challenge both themselves and their audience several times during the album´s playing time. So prepare to have a few curve balls thrown your way.
While it´s contempoary Carcass which I´m predominantly reminded of Cadaver are still a different kind of beast and they successfully add both hardcore punk, traces of industrial metal, thrash metal, and traditional heavy metal elements to their death metal sound. Sometimes Neddo sings in a blackened snarling vocal style and sometimes he uses a more rough and hoarse vocal style.
Upon conclusion "The Age Of The Offended" is another high quality release from Cadaver, and I´m extremely content that "Edder & Bile" wasn´t just a one-off comeback album. Hopefully Cadaver have even further album releases in them. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.