Maim - From the Womb to the Tomb

 

MAIM - From the Womb to the Tomb (SOULSELLER - LP 2010)

A disgusting stench of putrid is in the air and yet another tombstone has been crushed. The graveyard ground is shaking and horde of zombies are arising from their sleep in hunger of human flesh and mindless amok. As “Ascending From the Grave” says “…Army of the dead craving the brain, evil from hell strikes again… feasting at the cemetery, pounding the corpse… splice the torso, feast maggots…”. The horror image is well known to all of you by now I guess, and not only from the good old movies, but also from the countless of bands, which joined the wave of living dead worshippers and of old styled death metal. This may not be particularly original and unparalleled, but I still find a lot of fun and enjoy many of them and trust me, Maim is definitely one of the best bands around there! They came out of fuckin nowhere… OK, they’re from Sweden, but there were no demos or anything prior to their debut album 2009’s “From the Womb to the Tomb”, so I have no idea how have Soulseller Records found them, but anyway we should be grateful they went straight for the full length album.

The music on “From the Womb to the Tomb” pretty much walks the same path as that what bands like Bastard Priest, Death Breath and Bombs of Hades play. So it is punked death metal, with lots of crust influence, with huge dose of Autopsy and Repulsion worship plus of corpse there’s the traditional Swedish death metal ingredient. The whole riffing here is very simple, not technical at all, but rough and damn aggressive as hell, the harsh vocals are vomited with furious strength and the production is warm, analogue and fits this style of music perfectly. This album won’t be a thing for those, who like their death metal brutal, guttural and technical. But it will be loved by those fans, who like the bands and styles I mentioned above, especially that “From the Womb to the Tomb” also brings a certain quality with their sounds and are equally great as the three Swedish bands I’ve mentioned in the first sentence of this paragraph.

The song writing is perfect, the riffs excellent and so everything on “From the Womb to the Tomb” sounds great to my ears. There are absolutely killer tracks here, like “Smoldering Ashes”, “Ascending From the Grave” or “From the Womb to the Tomb”. In most parts the music is rather mid paced, Maim doesn’t spoil their music with blast beats or other such (sometimes unnecessary) additions, but they do play some faster tunes in tracks like “Carnal Feast”, which is another smashing tune, but this fast playing does not mean blasting with a formula one speed. Maim’s death metal is of corpse very vital, aggressive, it’s also sometimes amazingly doomy like in the first section of the title song, “From the Womb to the Tomb” for instance, which may be my favourite track on the album and sometimes it’s also slightly melodic in the classic Entombed way, like in the song I just mentioned, but also in the killer instrumental “The Beyond” (I love the atmosphere of this song, it would fit the zombie horror and cemetery gruesome pictures perfectly). And to make the album even more killer, there’s Autopsy’s “Ridden With Disease” for dessert and of corpse it sounds awesome, but you want meat and Maim offers nine bits of their own flesh all together plus this one cover, delivering 35 minutes long cannibalistic feast for every maniac’s pleasure. Awesome. I always recommend getting the vinyl copy of such killer albums and I do the same with “From the Womb to the Tomb” – get it if you ever have a chance! It was released as a gatefold in a limited edition of 500 copies and comes with a patch.

Standout tracks:“Smoldering Ashes”, “Ascending From the Grave”, “From the Womb to the Tomb”, "The Beyond"

Final rate: 90/100