Asphyx
Embrace The Death

"But why does Tepes always choose these records that no one gives a damn about?" any reader might ask me. "Because they are excellent works," Tepes replies irritably. And so now I will have to start, as in another dozen reviews, by saying that this record hasn't gotten its due, that the world lets such treasures go unnoticed and blah blah blah… But what do you want me to do… "It follows a neglected path/the warm fantasy/that is only happy when/it can unite utility with/the boast/of delightful song"… I'm just built this way…
And here I am reviewing a masterpiece thrown into oblivion by these ungrateful times, which generate and praise records like "The Wretched Spawn" and bury pieces of history like this one into the past (the time I say there are no more mid-seasons, stop publishing me and send some hitman to take me out).

Although "Embrace The Death" was released in 1996, the fourteen songs were composed between '88 and '89, right in the years immediately preceding the explosion of Death metal on the face of the planet: initially they were supposed to be part of the debut LP (which due to record label issues never saw the light) but then they were re-recorded and distributed among the various EPs produced by the trio (Danes if I remember correctly). Despite this diaspora, a few cassette tapes containing the original recording of "Embrace The Death" remained in circulation, which, recovered by our band, was published on CD. The songs you hear on this record are exactly the same ones played by Asphyx eight years earlier (and woe to you if you tell me "And why the hell should we care about this unnecessary digression," because I get emotional when I hear these things…).

Sure, the production is not top-notch, but it gives it that very patina that makes it rustic and spartan without overly compromising the sound quality. These three guys, at the time, were not endowed with enviable technique, but that does not mean they didn't know how to play: the songs are very well-structured and remain memorable on the first listen. The tempos are generally very slow, so much so that their style is properly Death-Doom: accelerations are few but executed correctly and placed, so to speak, "in the right place," just when excessive slowness risks veering into boredom. The singer-bassist unleashes very powerful and truly furious growling, giving it all a dark and oppressive atmosphere but not inert for that. On the contrary, anger flows profusely from this record, despite the slow tempos usually tending to dull aggressiveness: to complement it all, a capable guitarist who creates riffs of significant impact and also gives us simple solos but with melodies completely devoid of hope. The record thus proves to be a concentration of hate and devastation: if compared to a classic of the genre, the contemporary "Slowly We Rot" by Obituary (a band with which they share many aspects, the first of which is the immediacy of the songs and not over-the-top technique), it will be noted how "Embrace The Death" is infinitely heavier. This is to say that it has nothing to envy compared to other CDs from those years that are considered Masterpieces: other analogies can be found with Autopsy, especially regarding mid tempos and grim atmospheres. However, Asphyx further exacerbate the slowness by giving up that rotten and sick sound that characterizes the aforementioned band.

Great record, heavy and raw like few heard these days.