DeathCollector - Death’s Toll

DeathCollector – Death’s Toll
Release Date: 23rd June 2023
Label: Prosthetic Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal
FFO: Memoriam, Bolt Thrower, Morbid Angel, Incantation.
Review By: Mark Young

There has been a steady buzz building around DeathCollector, not just due to the component parts that bring with them some of the cream of extreme metal but because of the promise of unrelenting, total brutality that captures the sound and essence of UK death metal. Their EP, Time’s Up, was well received and served just to set the scene of what was to follow.

The nine tracks here represent a certain style, or approach, to death metal. It has that unmistakeable old-school flavour to it where subtlety is firmly tossed out of the window to allow for 38 minutes of sonic battering. There are bands who tout that line of ‘appealing to fans of traditional death metal’ without possessing the knowledge of what that actually means. Here, DeathCollector serve up a platter of brutal tunes that don’t try to reinvent the wheel or be anything that they are not. Going out on a limb now, but with these, you could drop them into any death metal collection from the early 90s, and it would be seamless.

With that in mind, how does it compare to modern death metal? Well, let’s look at it another way and say why? Why compare it at all? We don’t need to. It possesses some of the deepest vocals ever committed to tape, it’s speedy, heavy, has solo breaks and each of these songs are quality. Death’s Toll opens and is straight into the beat-down, and they don’t stop for breath as Mental Hedonist flies in. It’s great, just great. And this is the thing. The songs are spot on. This isn’t a ‘supergroup’ (sorry, guys) who are just doing this for a laugh. This is the real deal from those who know how to do it.

If you like death metal, you will like this. It’s that simple. If you only like melodic-blackened-post-electronica-metal, well, you should listen to it anyway.