DYING FETUS — War of Attrition (review)

DYING FETUS — War of Attrition album cover Album · 2007 · Brutal Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"War of Attrition" is the 5th full-length studio album by US, Maryland based death metal act Dying Fetus. The album was released through Relapse Records in March 2007. It´s the successor to "Stop at Nothing" from 2003 and features a couple of lineup changes compared to the predecessor. Lead vocalist Vince Matthews has jumped ship, and the vocal duties are now shared by guitarist John Gallagher and bassist Sean Beasley. Gallagher has always performed the unintelligible deep growling vocals in the band´s music, and continues to do so here, while Beasley takes up the more aggressive yet still brutal growling vocal style. Drummer Erik Sayenga has also left Dying Fetus and is replaced here by Duane Timlin. With guitarist Mike Kimball making his second appearance on a Dying Fetus album, the lineup has gone from a five-piece to a four-piece.

Stylistically the material on the 8 track, 36:50 minutes long album pretty much continues the brutal technical death metal style of "Stop at Nothing (2003)". In fact there are very few surprises here if you are familiar with the band´s releases all the way back from their inception in the early 90s. Dying Fetus are a technically skilled band and they deliver their music with great passion and conviction. Their trademark heavy grooves are here in abundance as well as the fast arpeggio sweeping and the two types of growling vocals, as mentioned above. So don´t expect much development of sound. What you get is high quality playing, powerful compositions which will force your head to bang and your body to move, and a brutal and raw yet clear sounding production.

So if you can forgive Dying Fetus that they have by now found a trademark style which they stick to and don´t deviate much from, "War of Attrition" is yet another high quality release in a long line of high quality releases by the band. I´d rank it with "Stop at Nothing (2003)" in the band´s discography but below "Killing on Adrenaline (1998)" and "Destroy the Opposition (2000)", which to my ears are still the band´s most accomplished releases. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.
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