UMUR "Order Shall Prevail" is the 9th full-length studio album by US, Wisconsin based death metal act Jungle Rot. The album was released through Victory Records in June 2015. Jungle Rot was formed in 1994 and has consistently been releasing albums, and touring ever since. There have been quite a few lineup changes over the years, but for this album the lineup consists of Dave Matrise (Vocals, Guitars), James Genenz (Guitars, Bass), Geoff Bub (Guitars), and Joey Muha (Drums). The album also features a guest vocal performance by Max Cavalera (Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, Sepultura), on "Fight Where You Stand".

Stylistically the music on "Order Shall Prevail" is an old school take on death metal, which at times borders raw thrash. Especially an artist like Sodom comes to mind often while listening to "Order Shall Prevail". This is a bit more death metal oriented though. Dave Matrise is an intelligible growling vocalist, and the vocal delivery is generally solid although not particularly distinct sounding nor beyond standard powerful. The same can be said about the rest of the band, who are well playing and deliver their parts with a great organic touch, but nothing is being played that you haven´t heard a thousand times before. The lyrical content is also pretty typical for the genre which songtitles like "Blood Revenge", "The Dread Pestilence", and "Nuclear Superiority", are a clear testament to.

Jungle Rot understands how to write a good catchy death metal tune though, and the material on the 10 track, 36:29 minutes long album is both hook laden and relatively memorable. The band plays both faster-paced and more mid-paced parts. They even get a good heavy groove going, on a track like "Paralyzed Prey". A track they have also made a promotional video for. The sound production is decent, although it could have packed a bit more punch. Upon conclusion "Order Shall Prevail" is a good quality release by Jungle Rot though, and while it won´t win any contests when it comes to sounding original, and the music at times becomes slightly generic in style and execution, a 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved.

Time Signature Utter chaos...

Genre: death-thrash

Veterans on the death metal scene Jungle Rot recently released their seventh album Terror Regime, released via the eclectic label Victory Records. Not everything released on that label is stuff that I find interesting, but this album is pretty good.

Rather than going off in an orgy of technical show-off and shreddy madness, which otherwise characterize many death metal bands on the scene these days, Jungle Rot take cues from thrash metal, and, to my ears – although there are definitely many death metal elements on Terror Regime - this album us more of a death-thrash affair than an all out death metal one, with tracks like 'Voice Your Disgust', ' I am Hatred', and 'Ruthless Omnipotence' striking me as all out thrashers, while 'Terror Regime' boldly features a metalcore styled breakdown (teaching us the lesson that metalcore breakdowns, when used with moderation, are pretty cool). Thus, you can expect several thrashy riffs and not that many blastbeats, for instance. And, when Jungle Rot do tilt over into death metal territory, it is exclusively old school death metal akin to Obituary and the dirty death metal associated with the Stockholm scene of the 90s.

What is more, several tracks on the album are more punky in character, drawing on crossover, hardcore and crust, as is the case of, for instance of the crossover thrasher 'Scorn' and the hardcore track 'I Don't Need Society' (which is of course a D.R.I. classic) and the more crusty 'Pronounced Dead'.

The production is pretty well-defined and professional for an old school death metal release, what with the preference for lo-fi productions that is otherwise preferred. And the album as a whole is, I think, pretty enjoyable. It has raw punky energy, thrashy aggression and the brutality of death metal.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)