Any one of my death metal brothers and sisters in the scene know by now I feel Germany’s Revel in Flesh have been one of my favorite death metal fans for the last 5-6 years.  Their brand and take on the classic heavy Swedish death metal sound is pulverizing.  With four (4) killer albums under their belt, what better way to tide everyone over to the 5th full-length than release a compilation album?  War Anthem Records brings us the compilation, Relics of the Deathkult, which compiles all their split ep’s/7” over the last several years.

The comp opens with the 7 minute “Bonecrusher” from their  2012 split with Revolting, called Within the Morbid Ossuary.  I have never heard this song before and it is supremely heavy and brutal.  Ralf Haubersson’s vocals are disgustingly brutal and filthy.  The guitar melodies on this song are brilliant.  It’s interesting as this song was written 6 years ago and the band revisited more of this type of atmospheric doom/gloom style on their last full length Emissary of All Plagues-which lopped off heads worldwide in 2016.  The tune is really heavy and a well-played slower, but crushing death metal tune with Ralf reaching those higher notes with the chorus parts and returning to his lower pitch-killer.

“Corpus Vermis” is next and this is from the 7” split with Grave Wax from 2014.  Great mid-paced rumbling with some Egyptian stylized melody riffing before galloping into a brilliant 1989 death metal gallop and then speeding up with Ralf’s vocals vomiting all over your dining room floor and shoes-super brutal and powerful.  Great Holy Shit moment with the rhythm section at the 2.41 section as the song picks up speed and the guitar picking is excellent and some of the strongest guitar melodies Revel in Flesh has ever written. The tune “Deathkult” is from the 2014 7” with Feral and this song is killer.  More classic Swedish pummeling and monstrous heavy moments with death gallops and speedier passages.  The 1.57 groove is so heavy with awesome growls and screeches and cool guitar solo soon thereafter.  Kick ass.

Other tracks are from the splits with Puteraeon, The Dead Goats, Humiliation, Zombiefication, Wombbath and Under the Church.  All the songs are crushing as well as some classic covers, which the band has always done.  We get a Master cover, Headhunter D.C. cover and the “Mutilation” cover by Death. To hear this track with the Swedish guitar tone is quite extraordinary-super brutal.  Keeping the original essence of the classic original track, for the most part, but adding some added vocal patterns, which are a bit different and great to hear Revel in Flesh inject their own flair to the track.  The entire mix and mastering of this comp is excellent and sounds insanely good.

Revel in Flesh also know the importance of excellent album covers, as they always have striking covers.  They decide to choose the color green, my favorite color, for the main color and this album cover is awesome with a lot of great shading and glowing aspect to it.  Relics of the Deathkult is a no-brainer-Buy or Die comp.  Buy it, all their releases, shirts and support one of the best death metal bands out there.

 

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