Gruesome - Savage Land review
| Band: | Gruesome |
| Album: | Savage Land |
| Style: | Death metal |
| Release date: | April 17, 2015 |
| A review by: | deadone |
01. Savage Land
02. Trapped In Hell
03. Demonized
04. Hideous
05. Gangrene
06. Closed Casket
07. Psychic Twin
08. Gruesome
09. Land Of No Return [Death cover] [bonus]
10. Black Magic [Slayer cover] [bonus]
There are probably a few Death fans out there who lament that the band switched to more progressive pastures far too quickly and who believe the band should have churned out a few more Leprosy's instead. Now these fans have their wish come true in the form of Gruesome's Leprosy worshipping debut Savage Land.
Arguably, there's not much one can say about an album whose sole purpose is to replicate early Death. Gruesome do a great job of replicating the vibe, be it the overall sound, the primitive raspy vocals, the crusty guitar tones and archetypal drum patterns found in late 1980s death metal. It's a bit missing in the bass area, but one can't have it all.
The songs aren't as memorable as those found on Leprosy, and there aren't many moments approaching such Death classics as "Pull The Plug," "Born Dead" or "Forgotten Past." But the songs are well written for the most part, even though they sound awfully familiar at times.
The only areas where this might beat Leprosy is sound clarity and drum sound. It's still crusty in a late 1980s kind of way, but it's overall a lot more clear sounding. The drum sound is also livelier and better balanced with a fuller bass drum sound and snappier cymbals. As sacrilegious as it may sound the author prefers Matt Harvey's vocal delivery over Chuck Schuldiner's as it's a bit more meaty. But one suspects most fans would disagree preferring Schuldiner's more savage vocal styles.
Savage Land is both a fine tribute to one of death metal's pioneers and a good death metal album on its own. It's not original but then a lot of the early death metal bands of the early 1990s were just as unoriginal and often made far less interesting music. For fans of Leprosy this will probably be their second or third favourite Death album.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 7 |
| Originality: | 2 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written by deadone | 21.05.2015
Comments
Comments: 14
Visited by: 159 users
| Joe Zombie Posts: 540  |
Very average album IMO. This kind of OSDM worship absolutely bores me when I would rather just listen to Death in the first place.
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62002  |
Now we need learn to you how to listen black and doom metal , then you will be perfect
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Maybe you know or don't that Gruesome was formed due to Matt Harvey doing the vocals for the Original Death To All tour. That tour made him decide he wanted to form a band that was total good-era (my words and opinion) Death worship. So, just focussing on Death's sound of Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy when Death still played death metal. And in worshipping Death's two best albums it totally succeeds. Savage Land is a fun listen and weirdly enough quite a bit of fresh air in the OSDM world since no-one tries to sound like early Death there since almost all bands focus on the Swedish and FInnish death metal sound.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| garmling Account deleted |
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| musicalkaratekid Posts: 1506 |
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| Totenlieder Posts: 274  |
Written by Bad English on 21.05.2015 at 12:10 I second this yo.
---- Blut & Krieg
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62002 |
Written by deadone on 22.05.2015 at 01:46 I did it to until I decide VM is more atmo and fits to me,,,, but I like DM -... well I like all metal genres whit out new(no not Nu what I don't like as well)
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die" I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62002 |
Written by deadone on 22.05.2015 at 03:16 shit BM ... B and V is close on keys black metal
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die" I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| raveneffect Posts: 541  |
Dont agree at all with this review. I think originality is overrated as fuck. Lots of bands don't want to re-invent the wheel and are perfectly fine in playing tribute to their favourite bands. As long as it sounds good, and this sounds fucking amazing!
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| fosi Posts: 97 |
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| raveneffect Posts: 541 |
Don't know about that. I am not a musician and I have absolutely no based knowledge in criticizing song writing. When I do reviews I focus solely on stuff like Riffs, variety in the structure, production, etc..., matters that a simple fan can just pick up portions by earing a shit ton of Metal.
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| ADIresiduos Posts: 176  |
I'm not so a hardcore death metal fan, but I do like a few DM bands, being #1 Death, of course. Gruesome does sound a lot like early Death and that's great! I did like this album a lot, obvously because it reminds me of Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy, with a variety in the sound of the voice, but a pretty good one I might say. Great work from these guys. It's a good listen; something not so polished as some new DM bands, more raw and so over-produced. Good stuff!
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| ADIresiduos Posts: 176 |
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by deadone on 22.05.2015 at 01:51 Savage Land is my favorite 'Death' album after Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy. I prefer this by far over all of their average to extremely sucky (Sound Of Perserverance) post Leprosy stuff. Although I find Spiritual Healing still highly enjoyable.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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