This spring/summer has seen the German death metal scene deliver the goods with the likes of Tombthroat, Sophicide and the second release from Deadborn. All three delivering something a little different, with Tombthroat going for the throat, Sophicide making people forget Necrophagist and with Deadborn you’ve got a band that lie some where in between.

With a clean new logo from their 2007 debut, Stigma Eternal, the title, a biomechanical cover and song titles like “Bionic Abomination”, “Replicants Device” and “Second Order Cybernetics”, you actually get a pretty good idea of Mayhem Maniac Machine‘s sound before you even hit play. It’s a mechanical, robust  and precise form of death metal that stands astride brutality and technicality with confidence, but despite everything it does right, its hardly a game changer.

The production and mainly the guitar tone is thick and clean with an almost industrialized tone, the same for the drums. In truth, Deadborn are a few sampled beeps and whirrs (which arise to close out the album for “Kraftwerk D”) from being a full on cyber death metal band. But as it stands they are a pretty standard, efficient death metal band. And while I enjoy the album while its playing as it has a forceful, blunt force trauma presence, it never truly grabs me or throttles me. It’s full of beefy blasts (“Reinvented Power”)  and ample grooves (“Slaves of Megatron”) and vocalist Mario Petrović has a standard death metal bellow making for a death metal album that checks all the boxes, and should appeal to fans of the Polish death metal scene (i.e Vader) in its pacing and structure.

But when the album is stacked against some of 2012s death metal from their country mates or otherwise, its cold calculated sound and lack of elite songs hold it back a bit. However, the album is a solid worthwhile listen and certainly if the band does full transform into a cyber death band, they might end up being a pretty good one if they can keep their full on death metal intact and fully integrate a cyber hue.

[Visit the band's website]

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