Denmark’s Ferocity really burst onto the scene with their 2009 debut Cocoon of Denial which was an excellent death metal debut album, combining that Danish chunky brand of death metal that fellow countrymen, Dawn of Demise and Corpus Mortale are known for.  The band followed it up with their 2013 album The Sovereign which was more technically advanced and the brutality was increased ten fold.  I love that album so much and through my reviews and such became friendly with vocalist Kasper Wendelboe and guitarist Peter Nordahn.

After not hearing about the band for a while Peter hit me up and sent me the files for the new album The Hegemon.  9 songs in 36 minutes continuing their onslaught of brutality. “Reminiscence of a Tyrant” immediately starts with blasting madness and a monster guitar riff and Kasper belting out a ferocious growl.  With the 7 years between this and the past record the band has tightened up musically speaking and the sound is a bit cleaner and clearer.  It actually makes the razor guitar riffs bite through a tad more and at the 1.06 mark has a great slow down riff and nice to hear the bass guitar break through the brutality.  This is a super intense and brutal opening song. The chunky slow down at the 2.52 mark with Kasper barking up a storm is pure brutal bliss and the guitar work is nothing short of exceptional.  “Embracing the End Times”-wow how befitting of a title as to what is going on with this global virus, huh!  This tune rips with more chunky riffing which is not devoid of melody.  Excellent mid-paced rumbling heaviness which is ferocious and then a little while later breaks into a killer blast and the guitars never getting buried in the mix-way to go fellas!  Kasper unleashing a killer growl and right after the 3.50 moment we get some very tasty drum fills-super cool.

“Defying the Hegemony” is so goddamned heavy and some little pinch harmonics thrown in early enough to swipe your pathetic head off that body of yours that should have been donated to National Geographic at minimum 25 years ago.  The song picks up some blasting speed with nice guitar solos over the blast and then the song returning to that mid-paced brutality before the song gets into a 90’s death thrash speed and then back into the blasting.  Very dynamic song.

“March of the Berserker” starts massively brutal with the bass guitar very prominent in the mix and sounds outstanding.  The blasting slows down so the riffs breathe a little before that main guitar riff returns with the bass guitar plucking away and sounding simply excellent-loving the sound.  I like the high pitch squealing guitar sound over the blast at the 1.28 mark and then the song returns to the bludgeoning mid-paced rumbling with chest collapsing double bass that never sounds too triggered-still an organic nature to them and they are thumping.  More creative riffing and the song trails for with an otherworldly guitar solo.

“Trembling the Gates of Treason” ends the album with a nice heavy buildup with more of the prominent bass guitar which just adds an extra layer of heaviness and thickness to the overall punch Ferocity beats you over and over again and again.  A little bit of blasting, more mid-paced heaviness, more guitar soloing and killer drums and nice isolated bass lines towards the end of the track all the while Kasper is providing his best vocal performance yet.

The Hegemon is Ferocity’s best album to date.  Production wise, musically, and they allow the riffs to breathe.  Not that they did not do that before.  It’s just more prominent with this album and really makes this a dynamic, yet still brutal death metal album.  The Danish scene continues to put out some of the heaviest death metal out there with bands realizing mindless blasting is unnecessary and using blasts to their advantage so they sound more powerful when coming out of a steamrolling heavy and massive mid-paced sections.  Ferocity have put this album out under the Immigrant Species Records moniker label name-their own label.  It’s an homage to their 2001 demo titled Immigrant Species.

Before the album came out in March long time vocalist Kasper departed from the band to pursue other things in life and the band brought back their earlier vocalist Michael Aaen.  Unsure of what Ferocity’s show plans were before the covid-19 bullshit came out.  I am hoping once things settle down the band plays live-because they need to.  Additionally you good reader must pick up The Hegemon.  It’s massively heavy, brutal, melodic and quite varied.  Awesome album!

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments