UMUR "A Dreadful Decease" is the debut full-length studio album by Austrian death metal act Zombie Inc.. The album was released through Massacre Records in August 2011. The band was formed in 2009 and as their name suggests the primary lyrical topic is zombies. This is only further enhanced by songtitles like "We Must Eat", "Horror Fills This Hollow Earth", "Planet Zombie" and "Challenge of the Undead".

The music on the album is old school death metal. Mostly influenced by the early 90s Swedish death metal scene, but there are more contemporary tendencies in the music too such as blastbeats and a couple of melodic parts here and there. Those are not dominant elements though and "A Dreadful Decease" is first and foremost an album for fans of old school death metal. The tracks are generally powerful, punchy and brutal, the sound production raw yet clear and the musicianship strong, so there are a lot of great things to say about the album.

"A Dreadful Decease" isn´t the kind of album that breaks new ground or sticks out from the crowd, but it´s a damn solid release fully deserving a 3.5 star (70%) rating.

Time Signature Challenge of the undead...

Genre: death metal

Zombies and death metal! What a perfect match!

Zombie Inc.'s A Deadly Decease probably qualifies as what some would call true death metal – that is death metal which draws primarily on the death metal scene of the 90s for inspiration and features lyrics of death and destruction. Musically, Zombie Inc. Stay true to the virtues of old school death metal which means that there are plenty of primitive riffs, heavy passages and a number of even thrashy elements every now and then plus the obligatory chaotic guitar solos. However, rather than just bulldozing ahead, like many early death metal bands did, they do incorporate a couple of more modern elements such as blastbeats (and other elements associated more with brutal death metal) and groovy breakdowns (without being deathcore – so, purists, fear not). And, amidst all the brutality, some surprisingly melodic passages pop up such as the heavy intro of 'Planet Zombie' and parts of 'Horror Fills this Earth' and 'Horde Unleashed'.

There is of course a natural connections between the brutality of the music and the lyrics which, inspired by pulp zombie flicks, tell tales of dismemberment and disembowelment at the hands of the undead. And, while growled, the vocals actually have such a quality that you can hear the words of the lyrics, allowing you to generate images in your mind (this works best if you are familiar with the zombie horror genre, of course). Should your own imagination be insufficient, Zombie Inc. Have kindly inserted sound effects of growling zombies, screaming victims, splattering bowels, and chainsaws and shotguns finishing off zombies.

The zombie-death metal combo presented on this album should go straight to the heard of fans of pulp horror and extreme metal – like a shovel through the mushy brain of a crippled zombie. Fans of old school death metal acts like Necrophagia, Bolt Thrower, Morbid Angel and Obituary as well as brutal death metal acts like Suffocation should find this gory blood-dripping and brains-oozing album appealing.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)