Keres – Homo Homini Lupus
Release Date: 23rd February 2024
Label: Gruesome Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Blackened Death Metal, Technical Death Metal.
FFO: Belphegor, Impalement, Saevus Finis, Nothingness.
Review By: Andy Spoon
Honestly, I wasn’t sure if there would be an album in recent months that would have satiated my lust for quality blackened or black-influenced death metal. I particularly enjoyed Nothingness to a high-degree last year, putting it on my top ten list. I am not entirely certain if Keres and Nothingness are the same type of artist, but I am immediately drawing similarities between the last (and truly diabolical) Nothingness album and Keres’ upcoming release Homo Homini Lupus, an LP which is set to be release on Gruesome Records on February 23rd, 2024, something that I intend to be a compliment of the highest order.
Heavily groove-driven, blackened technical death metal band Keres is returning from a short hiatus to release its new 8-track LP, a total sonic tidal wave of fury and speed that left me wanting to re-spin it immediately after my first listen. No joke, there were just too many things to get deep into for my review, so I just slapped it on again and played it all the way through until my nearby desk mates wondered exactly “how long” this album was. I wasn’t planning on liking this album as much as I did until I forced myself to really absorb it as a listener first, then as a music reviewer. I think that Keres really doesn’t disappoint with this one, friends.
Vocally, I was impressed with the range displayed on the album to help break up parts between tracks, or even movements within tracks. The high-gurgle all the way to death metal growls and other techniques vary between grooves and choruses/breakdowns to emphatic refrains on almost every track. I was generally happy with the entire vocal delivery, exciting me for the next part of any given track, something that I don’t often feel for extreme metal artists. That being said, it does follow the basic genre techniques and artistic voice. With that in mind, I still think that there are only a few bands who can give listeners this level of production value and engineering, and those bands are MUCH bigger than Keres are.
The blackened tone comes from the riffing high guitars, always digging deep into a black metal pocket, but never spending too much time on pure black metal. I really did enjoy the grooves and hooks that Keres created for the album. They reminded me, however, of certain groove-based death/blackened bands who lean into those techniques as part of their sound. That’s not saying that I didn’t enjoy the album. I’m just trying to find a place for it. I really felt like it would go neatly in a library next to Cattle Decapitation, Aborted, Belphegor, and perhaps newer Cryptopsy, all bands who have distinct hooks as part of their death metal product. If you think that those artists’ technique and use of memorable riffs and beatdowns are your cup of tea, you’re not going to want to miss Homo Homini Lupus. However, it’s definitely not going to reach fans of older-school death metal.
One of the things that I can definitely say for the album is that there is zero “filler”, no tracks of eerie sound effects or dungeon-esque interludes that attempt to paint an abstract fictional picture. I can’t really say that those do much for me on most extreme metal albums; and the lack of them on this album helps seal the deal that this is a legitimately-good band writing legitimately-good music, not just copy-and-paste blackened death metal. Even though there are similarities to other headlining acts, I think that Keres needs to be at the table of said artists. I didn’t find any tracks on the entire album that felt like “filler”, like they were just there to round out the album, or that were re-badged b-sides from other projects meant to give listeners something else to chew on. Every track on the album had a very similar tone, a very consistent artistic voice, and obviously consistent across the entirety of the release. I was impressed by the continuity and the consistency that Keres offers here, which 100% adds to the diversity and material of the entire genre.
(4 / 5)
