MAUL – In The Jaws Of Bereavement
Release Date: 4th October 2024
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Sludge Metal, Hardcore.
FFO: Sanguisugabogg, Phobophilic, Gatecreeper, Fulci, Scorched, Obituary, Kruelty.
Review By: Rick Farley
Sometimes in the metal community, there are those bands that are just built to smash the live environment. Bands that are so bone crushing and hooky that your spinal cord could probably only take half the set. One such band is Fargo, North Dakota’s punishing metal merchants Maul, with a penchant for hardcore style grooves built off of the backbone of bruising death metal. Heavy as hell and extremely pit friendly or violently pit unfriendly, I guess, depending on how much abuse your body is willing to take. But yes, you did read that right, I did actually say Fargo, North Dakota death metal.
Honestly, off the top of my head, I can’t think of another band that’s not completely buried in the underground that’s come out of there. Ok so, after a brief pause in writing, I did look it up, and it turns out I’m dumb. Both Phobophilic and Gorgatron are from there, each band pretty great in their own right.
Anyway my point is Fargo isn’t exactly Stockholm Sweden or Tampa Florida, so it’s always cool when you’re surprised by a band’s location, especially when they’re this fucking killer.
Now that I’ve got my rambling nonsense out of the way, let’s talk insanely good death metal.
In The Jaws Of Bereavement is the bands second full length album, set for release via 20 Buck Spin on October 4th, 2024. Full of ridiculously heavy crisp guitar tones, a lumbering rhythm section and insanely varied harsh vocals. Vocalist Garrett Alvarado spits, snarls, and vomits out demonic gutturals, screechy bree’s and everything in between. Dude is a straight fucking monster. Neck breaking, crunchy guitars forming a putrid stench of beastly riffs, gallops, deadly hooks, trills, guitar squawks and any other battering ram style guitar grind they can muster up. Maybe think Obituary, Dismember and Autopsy’s guitar players got into a brutal dust up to the death, and only a few were left standing to wipe off the blood and riff it up. It might sound like this.
Maul’s skull battering rhythm section clubs you with punchy low end and varied thick beats, all serving the song for ultimate suffocating atmosphere. It’s right in your face, stomping hardcore swagger meets surging death metal, with hints of doomy sludge that doesn’t feel overly dense or muddy. A fully armoured death tank ploughing through a marsh on its way to destroy their enemies.
Production wise In The Jaws Of Bereavement is clear with a satisfying griminess to it. Almost in the jagged guitar way but not quite full on raging chainsaw maniac. Thick bass drags you down through the deep depths. The snappy snare and full thud of the drums helps with unsettling the shine of the record that’s in between claustrophobic and murky. The album was tracked/mixed/mastered by Adam Tucker at Signaturetone Recordings and sounds exactly the way death metal should sound. Mauling, see what I did there.
Somewhere in between doomy cave dweller style death metal, swedeath and American death metal, Maul is a straightforward destructive force that doesn’t need to be overly technical, sombre or proggy to still be compelling. Even though In The Jaws Of Bereavement is a familiar sounding record, it’s done in such a way that it gets stronger after each listen. It’s an intoxicating amalgamation of new and old death metal that feels authentic and organic. The only other thing I can really say is get this in your ears immediately and wreck something.
(4.5 / 5)
