Masachist - Death March Fury

 

MASACHIST - Death March Fury (WITCHING HOUR - CD 2009)

You could have had some reservations, before checking out Masachist, thinking that it will be yet another project of people, who’re involved in some more known bands and who suddenly felt so bored that they formed a side project to get some easy cash. But I hope your doubts have been all crushed by the great music of Masachist as well as by the fact that it became a normal band, not a weekend project of talented musicians. All in all, Thrufel has left Azarath and now all his energy and riffs are sacrificed for Masachist. And Daray may be sometimes busy playing gigs with Dimmu Borgir or some other bands, which he is involved, but I guess Masachist is not a type of band, which needs to play ten tours per year, so it is not a problem. Just to make your knowledge complete, in case you don’t know, Masachist line up consists of also Sauron, who used to be a growler in Decapitated plus guys, who’re in bands like Vesania and Shadows Land. “Death March Fury” is the first album from Masachist, released in 2009 and I must say that if you’re into Polish and US death metal – or modern, fast, slightly technical death metal at all – then this album will make your heart pound more intensely and blood splash all over the place, when your guts and other internal organs will be all ripped out.

The title is excellent, but maybe this album should be called “Death Metal Fury”, as this is exactly what this music brings - a relentless dose of aggression and brutality; fury and devastation; pure, musical massacre. Right from the first sound Masachist delivers an intensity, which will really cause the bloodshed and which we all love in this sort of music. The playing is tight as hell, often it is fast like there was some sort of death race going on, but luckily Masachist doesn’t bore with only one way of playing and diverse the music as much as it is possible in this kind of death metal… Many slower parts will break your necks and some technical, more complex structures and riffs will make the whole even more lethal. The songwriting is really great here. I can definitely say that the riffs are just brilliant and all arrangements and performances from each of band members are truly top notch. And it doesn’t matter if we listen to such a variety of songs like the slower, more groovy “Appearance of the Worm” or those totally fast neckbreakers like “Unveil the Grave”, “Open the Wounds” and “Crush Them!!!!!!”. The quality of this material never fails and I must say that I am truly impressed with the drumming of Daray, as well as by the guitarist’s work. I also like Sauron’s vocals, which are close to the classic Floridian death metal growls of Brett Hoffmann and Frank Mullen. Great! And all this is squeezed in barely 25 minutes of music, so you can imagine how intense the time, which you’ll spend on this album, is (but the re-release version of “Death March Fury” has two bonus tracks, mind that!).

Style wise I can definitely say that Masachist offers everything, what is best in this so called modern death metal, when it’s played with passion and at the same time it is still audible, without too complex and too unreadable structures. If I’ll make the comparisons to the likes of Trauma, Malevolent Creation, Decapitated, Immolation, recent Suffocation albums and some Brazilian devastators like Rebaelliun and Krisiun, then I guess you should have a clear vision of “Death March Fury”… And if you call yourself a fan of any of these bands, then I must sincerely recommend you Masachist. You won’t feel disappointed, trust me!

Standout tracks: “Appearance of the Worm”, “Unveil the Grave”, “Crush Them!!!!!!”

Final rate: 85/100