ASPHYX — The Rack (review)

ASPHYX — The Rack album cover Album · 1991 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"The Rack" is the debut full-length studio album by Dutch death metal act Asphyx. The album was released through Century Media Records in April 1991. After leaving Pestilence, bassist/vocalist Martin Van Drunen teamed up with guitarist Eric Daniels and drummer Bob Bagchus to form Asphyx. Apparently Martin Van Drunen didn´t agree with the rest of the guys in Pestilence about the more sophisticated death metal sound that they wanted to pursue as his interest was in filthy old school death metal.

...Asphyx more than fits that description and in fact "The Rack" is probably one of the most filthy and brutal old school death metal albums out there. Martin Van Drunen has a rather distinct vocal style. A kind of desperate sounding growl/howl and he pushes his voice to the full on this album and sometimes even beyond what I find pleasant to listen to. So beware that the vocals on "The Rack" might be an aquired taste. Asphyx play a filthy doomy death metal style with an organic and authentic almost sloppy touch. There are some crushingly brutal doomy riffs on the album, but the band play both mid- and faster paced parts too. A track like "The Sickening Dwell" has always stood out to me, but the album is generally consistent in quality. But that also means that the album doesn´t feature many highlight nor many lows.

The sound production is noisy, distorted and at times almost unbearable to my ears. Filthy, filthy stuff.

"The Rack" is a classic old school death metal album from the golden year of death metal 1991. It´s not a personal favorite of mine, mainly because of the extreme vocal delivery and the equally extreme production values (I´m simply not butch enough to enjoy this album all the way through), but it´s an original and distinct sounding death metal release and deserves recognition for that. a 3.5 star (70%) rating is warranted.
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