UMUR "The Age Of The Offended" is the fifth full-length studio album by Norwegian death metal act Cadaver (the sixth if you count the 2001 Cadaver Inc album as part of the band´s discography). The album was released through Nuclear Blast in July 2023. It´s the successor to "Edder & Bile" from November 2020, which was a comeback album for Cadaver after a 16 year long recording break. Band founder Neddo (guitars, bass, vocals) enlisted prolific drummer Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth, Aborted, Scarve, Soilwork...etc.) and created a duo lineup and it´s the same duo lineup who has recorded "The Age Of The Offended".

After a short intro ("Sycophants Swing") the first "regular" track "Postapocalyptic Grinding" may have you believe that "The Age Of The Offended" is just a continuation of "Edder & Bile" as it´s similar in style to the sharp, aggressive, and fast-paced death metal of the preceding album, but the further you get into the album, you´ll come to realise that Cadaver have done what they always do...create a unique album which somehow still ends up sounding unmistakably like them. It´s actually mostly the production values which are somewhat similar between the two albums and of course the core style, but Cadaver make sure to challenge both themselves and their audience several times during the album´s playing time. So prepare to have a few curve balls thrown your way.

While it´s contempoary Carcass which I´m predominantly reminded of Cadaver are still a different kind of beast and they successfully add both hardcore punk, traces of industrial metal, thrash metal, and traditional heavy metal elements to their death metal sound. Sometimes Neddo sings in a blackened snarling vocal style and sometimes he uses a more rough and hoarse vocal style.

Upon conclusion "The Age Of The Offended" is another high quality release from Cadaver, and I´m extremely content that "Edder & Bile" wasn´t just a one-off comeback album. Hopefully Cadaver have even further album releases in them. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

Kev Rowland It may have taken Cadaver 16 years to return with their fifth album, but the same line-up of Neddo (vocals, guitar, bass) and Dirk Verbeuren (drums) have produced the sixth after only three. I was quite a fan of ‘Edder & Bile’ and was intrigued to hear what the latest one would be like, and I was not disappointed. One of the joys of Cadaver is that while they are renowned for being a death metal band, formed some 35 years ago by Neddo and others, they are always looking to do something quite different. This time around they commence with “Sycophants Swing” which is what a jazz band would sound like if they were trapped in an asylum and forced to play the same tune for 20 or 30 years, and one can only wonder what will come next.

That next is “Postapocalyptic Grinding” where Dirk shows he can blast as well as anyone and they straddle the boundaries of death and grind, yet when they come to tracks such as “Dissolving Chaos” the result is something that is far slower and almost power metal in its approach but with some black metal overtones. This is an extreme metal album which refuses to sit solidly within just one genre and instead keeps showing what they are capable of, with their cover of “Deadly Metal” being pure thrash from beginning to end. Norwegian metal legend Ronni Le Tekrø, guitarist with old school heroes TNT, can be heard shredding like a madman all over the album. He originally came in just to play a blistering solo on that track but had so much fun he stayed! It is also interesting to note that double-bass maestro Eilert Solstad, who performed on Cadaver’s second album, 1992’s ‘....In Pains’, returns on the murderous ‘Scum Of The Earth’, adding scabrous textures and subterranean tones.

Neddo recently fought cancer and came out the other side, and has used that experience to motivate himself even more, the result being an exciting album from a band who are pointedly refusing to rest on their laurels but instead are out to show there is plenty of life in them yet.