Incinerator - Concept of Cruelty

INCINERATOR - Concept of Cruelty (RAW SKULL Rekordz - CD 2018)

What a surprise to see new Incinerator album, only one year after the excellent "Stench of Distress" was unleashed! But it's a positive surprise for me. Debut album was great and so is this one, for sure! With big smile on my face I started to play this album, excepting the rightful continuation of the old school death metal style from the debut. And that's exactly what I got from "Concept of Cruelty”. It's a fuckin blast of traditional European death metal, everything here is played in the classic vein and it sounds absolutely killer. And if you call yourself fan of bands such as Asphyx, Pestilence, Grave, Dismember, Benediction and such, then get ready for this devastation!!! 

Such albums are for me a pure pleasure to listen to. Not only stylistically they're rooted in my favourite death metal styles and influenced by my favourite bands, but the songwriting, performance, production - everything about it is fantastic. There are killer riffs on every song and there's also diversity, which allows you to enjoy the album more. Incinerator plays faster, more violent and aggressive parts, but also come up with slower, heavier stuff and a bit of insanely memorable melodies. The music is very dynamic and it's also powerful as hell, with the production, which I like a lot, because it keeps the harshness of underground death metal, but the sound is also clean and so strong that you want to play the music as loud as possible. Structures of most of these songs are rather simple, the band seems to prefer the “keep it short and easy, but effective” way, which always have a punching effect on the listener. There are bit faster, more straight forward songs like “My Darkest Needs”, but my favourites are such tracks like “Dead”, “Morbid Lust” or “The Concept of Cruelty”, which provide more heaviness and viciousness to the music and have also some of these great melodic parts. And especially “Covered in Red” blew me away, maybe because it has such a killer mid-section similar to Asphyx / Bolt Thrower, which I like so much. 

There’re maybe one or two songs, which are a bit weaker, like “Quarteredismembered”, so maybe this is why I like Incinerator’s debut album more. It was more complete. But this one is also solid and worth to listen to. It’s one of those death metal styles, which I worship, so I cannot have different opinion. Very good band, definitely! 

Standout tracks: “Covered in Red”, “The Concept in Cruelty”, “Dead” 

Verdict: 70/100