Never To Arise – Gore Whores On The Killing Floor



I've always assumed that as I got older I would probably mellow out.  Not that I have been some crazy, rowdy guy ever anyway, but just that age smooths you out.  Musically, however, that has not been the case.  I find myself listening to and liking some really brutal music, and enjoying it more the older I get. Go figure.

I could certainly use this album as exhibit A to prove my point.  It's been 3 long years between albums for Never To Arise, but holy shit did these guys put that time to good use.  This is some brutal, hellish, pulverizing technical death metal.  Feel free to use that as a new sub-genre of metal.  Right now there would be exactly one band in that genre.  These guys do their thing so well.  To my ears, it's a mix of classic old school Floridian death with the newer technical stuff, and I don't hear a lot of bands doing anything like that.  I don't hear any bands doing it as well as this band.

What does it sound like?  Imagine having your testicles clamped in a vice, while your feet are in a bucket of water with a car battery hooked up to your nipples, and someone is whipping you across the back with a garden hose, while yet another person pulls your teeth out as slowly as possible.  It sounds like that would feel.  It sounds awesome.

And the song titles.  How can you go wrong with “A Most Unwilling Organ Donor”, “Butcher Knife Birth Control”, “Fornicating In The Blood Of The Mutilated”, “Open Heart Punching Bag”, and “To Cum Is To Die”?  That's only half of the tracks.  Again, they sound just as brutal as those song titles would lead you to believe.  This isn't just some gimmick though.  These are well-written songs with all kinds of intricacy.  I've listened to this several times already and I hear something new each time.  Two huge thumbs up to Gordon Denhart and Michael Kilborn for putting all of this together.  Yeah, I know they record a bunch of tracks and put them together.  Listen to this album though and try to count how many different guitar tracks you hear, and realize that each one is different.  Someone has to write those tracks and play them to perfection.  Hats off to these badasses for pulling that off.

There is a LOT of death metal out there.  Recording technology has become so affordable and thus ubiquitous that anyone who wants to can put some music out there.  Most of it is just generic stuff that you've heard a thousand times before.  In my mind, when you hear something like this, something that is truly unique and truly stands out from the masses, it needs to be celebrated.  We need to share it with others and spread the word.  We need to shout it from the mountain tops.  Jump on this one, people, and revel in the brutality.  Give your brain something to enjoy.  Play it really loud and piss off the people who just don't understand.  Let's get behind Never To Arise and make them known to the world.  I may be getting older but I guess my ears refuse to mellow.

- ODIN



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