UMUR
"Redeeming Filth" is the ninth full-length studio album by swedish death metal act Centinex. The album was released through Agonia Records in November 2014. It´s the successor to "World Declension" from June 2005, so it´s a comeback album after a nine year recording hiatus. Quite a few things have happened in those nine years though. Centinex officially split up in April 2006 and shortly after disbanding, three of the members of the lineup who recorded "World Declension" formed Demonical along with new vocalist Ludvig Engellau. In the intermediate years Demonical have released four studio albums making a name for themselves, but the wish to ressurect Centinex had been strong and therefore a lineup consisting of Martin Schulman (bass), Kennet Englund (drums), Sverker Widgren (guitars), and Alexander Högbom (vocals) were assembled for the recording of "Redeeming Filth".
So with the history of Centinex and Demonical now completely intwined, with members and former members of both bands appearing on recordings of both artists I´m wondering if there is really a need for both acts to exist...are the output of the two band´s really different enough to warrant the existence of two artists?
Considering that the last two albums by Demonical ("Death Infernal" from 2011 and "Darkness Unbound" from 2013) sounded more and more like a combination of the melodic old school Swedish death metal style of Dismember and the dark, grim, and brutal old school Swedish death metal style of Grave, I´m not surprised that the choice to ressurect Centinex was made. I´m a bit more surprised to learn that "Redeeming Filth" is not nearly as melodic as I had expected and actually predominantly features a more brutal old school Swedish death metal sound (although they haven´t gone for the HM-2 guitar tone on this album). I simply can´t tell where Centinex ends and where Demonical begins anymore (other than the lack of the HM-2 guitar tone).
"Redeeming Filth" features a slightly less interesting sound production than the preceding Demonical releases, and compared to the Demonical output I´m actually a little less impressed by this comeback Centinex release. It´s a good solid Swedish death metal release, but it´s not anything out of the ordinary and a 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.