Those in the know are aware that Lay Down Rotten were one of Germany’s most consistent but underrated death metal bands, releasing 7 fine albums from 2003 to 2015, when they split up. Well, 4 Lay Down Rotten members have regrouped and formed Demonbreed and continued the former bands chunky take on death metal, but this time with a super thick Stockholm Swedish death metal gloss.

Folks, if you are looking for one of the years beefiest, chunkiest and chainsaw-iest guitar tone, look no further than Where Gods Come to Die.  While the song structures are still  some of the band’s prior iteration, a big burly form of European death metal that culled from the chunky Danish death metal scene, these guys have clearly been listening to a lot of early Grave, Bloodbath and Entrails, and now have a sound that’s a full on, bruising midrange filled lope. The songs are generally a more mid paced affair with a few blasts and grooves, but the whole thing hits like a ton of boulders falling on you, especially with that simply gnarly, uber beefy, down-tuned guitar tone. Don’t get me wrong, these are far from great or game changing songs, but my gosh do they hit home, and the speakers in my truck actually bottomed out a few times listening to this.

After the classic 90s spooky intro title track, the hard charging “Vultures in a Blood Red Sky” starts things off with a bang and then you get the more menacing, lumbering “A Thousand Suns Will Rise”, which is a little more indicative of the albums overall pacing. “Summon the Undead” is a beastly, groovy track and “Revenge in the Afterlife” has a familiar, hefty Stockholm gallop that’s the backbone of so many great songs in the genre, as does “Red Countess”, adding some blasting Grave-isms, and the monstrous “Perish”. Tracks like this are a pure, simple pleasure that need no fluff, just big, beefy D beat canters and huge grooves. And its bolstered by the equally huge vocals of Jost  Kleinert, who has a downright imposing roar.

A few tracks break the mold such as “Empty Grave”, which has a bit more somber Dismember-y melody, the Bolt Thrower trundle of “Barren Wasteland” or the cover of Edge of Sanity‘s “Blood Colored” from Purgatory Afterglow ( complete with somewhat iffy attempts to mimic Swano’s clean vocals). It’s a brave choice of songs to cover and it’s placed oddly as the penultimate track, before punishing closer “Seeds of Ferocity”. Covers should end albums after the album for real is over, just my tiny two cents. But in all, a damn good effort that along with Nocturnal Hollow‘s Deathless and Fleshless and  Ulcer’s surprising  Heading Below is one of the better examples of the style this year and that’s a little more than Lay Down Rotten 2.0 .Country mates Revel In Flesh have some competition it appears….

[Visit the band's website]

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