Offence - R.A.W.

OFFENCE - R.A.W. (MAD LION - CD 2014)

Oh weeeeee… another excellent surprise from the last weeks is this debut album of Polish band called Offence. So far they got a small recognition with one song that was featured on the split 7” vinyl and cassette with Throneum. And yes, this one track titled “Revenge Is Significant” was great indeed, I also liked the rough and obscure sound, which Offence had there. But that was only one song, so we couldn’t guess how will Offence really handle on a longer recording. Finally two years later we could hear what they are the capable of, as “R.A.W.” album was released by Mad Lion! It contains 10 songs (including new version of “Revenge Is Significant”). And yeah, I am really positively surprised about Offence and their music. I truly enjoyed this album a lot and surely consider it to be one of the better Polish debuts of the past year.

There’s one significant change, which you could spot when comparing the album to a song from 7”EP and that is the sound on both recordings. I liked how “Revenge Is Significant” sounded on the EP, for it had truly great harsh, morbid, sick sound, quite well fitting to the obscurity and horrid style of both Offence and Throneum. Meanwhile “R.A.W.” sounds so different, surprisingly the guitar tone for example is very close to the classic Swedish tone, like in the good old days of Entombed and Dismember. Ha, that’s something I would never expect to hear. Anyway, the result is truly awesome, because “R.A.W.” sounds great, has awesome feeling, lots of aggression and lethal power, so I can’t complain at all. This is really good production.

Musically Offence performs rather simple, generic, total old school death metal worship, based on simple riffs, mid paced or slow tempos, harsh vocals of Hellscreamaross… and that simplicity of Offence music works brilliant here. Sure, Offence doesn’t play anything original, more so their music seems to be as explored like the old mines, but they have such a great feeling, aggression, so many dynamics and simple, pure energy… that for me it is impossible to resist these sounds. It has almost punk feeling in some places, it’s quite groovy in some other, all in all it is just cool, merciless death metal carnage in the old, classic vein. I feel like Offence music is sometimes almost relaxing hehe, surely with songs like “Alcoholic Solution” the band may seem to be more unserious than the majority of grim, super serious, occult or whatever bands, so it is also a nice change (one song is even based on the life of Mark "Chopper" Read). So, grab some beers or whisky or whatever liquids you like, play this CD damn loud and just enjoy some awesome death metal tunes. 

Standout tracks: “Offence”, “Revenge is Significant”, “Toxic Bitch”, “The Shot”

Final rate: 75/100