9 Dead – 9 Dead

9 Dead – 9 Dead
Release Date: 4th November 2022
Label: COMATOSE MUSIC
Bandcamp
Genre: Brutal Death Metal
FFO: Ingested, Gutrectomy, Insect Inside, Stillbirth.
Review By: Jason James

The ranks of the brutal death subgenre of metal prepares itself as 9 Dead stand ready to belch forth their self-titled debut album. Blake Kinnamon – Vocals, Chris Kusmanick – Bass, Jonathan Stauffer – Guitar and John Kopfle – Drums are on a mission to infect the world with their unique brand of desolation.

The band attempt to find new ways to both sonically thrill and terrify in equal measure. From the beginning of track 1, Abysmal Stupor, to the end of the last, Desecrate, the New Jersey natives plumb the depths of human despair in order to declare to everyone that the whole world is teetering on the edge of destruction. They inject their venom over 8 tracks of hate-filled harshness, lacerating eardrums as they go.

The only lull in the madness is track 7, Andromeda. A lilting acoustic guitar offers tales of hazy summer days and the hopeful dreams of innocents. As a laid-back electric guitar solo joins in to salve the frayed nerves from the onslaught of the preceding tracks over the almost harpsichord-like acoustic picking, the song then fades out before 9 Dead end the album as it began: with unbridled ferocity.

This isn’t an album that is easy to pick a favourite from. All the tracks are of equal quality, and there are titanically heavy riffs and bone-shattering breakdowns evenly distributed throughout. Fans of this genre of metal will not be disappointed. The musicianship is top-notch, the vocal relentless. The drums are metronomic in their precision and underpin the accompanying tumult admirably.

This is a very good debut from this quartet and if they can manage to keep this momentum up, there’s no telling what heights they can attain.

(3.5 / 5)