Mass Burial - Gangrene Hymns

MASS BURIAL - Gangrene Hymns (WM PSYCHO - CD 2013)

I honestly didn’t bother to check out Mass Burial’s first release, which was their debut full length album “Of Carrion and Pestilence” from 2012… I don’t really know why, but maybe I just have been a little exhausted with every new old school death metal band coming out each month, especially as every one of them was considered by the labels to be “the next death metal sensation playing in the Entombed and Dismember way”. Of corpse there were many such bands, which I totally loved – Entrails, Graveyard, Puteraeon, Undead Creeep, etc to give you just very few, but some of the best examples – but sometimes you just need to say “enough is enough”. I think I have checked one or maybe two Mass Burial songs on you tube and just decided that I won’t be getting their album, as there’s no point. Sorry to be so unfair, but there must be some limits for everything… anyway, recently WM Psycho sent me the message that they’re about to release another recording from Mass Burial; which is “Gangrene Hymns” four track miniCD. And I was like “OK, fine, but whatever…”. But later on it turned out that this miniCD is so damn cheap (costs only 15 zloty, which is about 4 euros) that I decided to give it a chance, bought it and so one copy laid on my stereo. Well, first I must say that once more Juanjo Castellano did a killer job with the artwork… I’ll never have enough of such awesome pieces of art and this one from “Gangrene Hymns” looks just brilliant. Well done, mate!

“Gangrene Hymns” consists three new Mass Burial songs plus Sodom’s “Persecution Mania” cover. Well, starting with that cover tune, it definitely sounds weird to hear Sodom’s song with classic Swedish death metal sound, but the song is OK… Speaking of the production, Mass Burial has a typical filthy and obscure sound with the characteristic guitar tone of the Swedish death metal bands. Well, I love such sound, but here I kind of miss something… I don’t know, maybe it is not energetic and powerful enough? It seems muffled a little, but for the miniCD I guess it is OK. The songwriting of the three Mass Burial songs is quite good; there are some killer riffs here and there, some nice Swedish melodic harmonies as well, so my overall impression is good. I have just one minor problem with Mass Burial and it is the fact that with so many similar bands around I can pick up at least two dozens, which are just better than those Spaniards… take their countrymen Graveyard for instance… I have a feeling like Mass Burial is more of a mediocre kind of band, quality wise, and honestly there can be so many better bands to invest your money for… I guess Mass Burial is on the same quality level as Revel In Flesh, Lifeless, Sorcery… so, bands, which are OK to listen to, I have absolutely nothing against them and I even have albums of few such bands, but they’re just nothing mandatory and if you wanted to be really picky and make a selection then Mass Burial would be taken away and prevailed by some more awesome acts.

Final rate: 65/100