The creepy Mexicans are back and better than ever! After the splendid Reaper’s Consecration EP last year, the sick duo of Mr. Jacko (bass, guitars) and Mr. Hitchcock (vocals) have returned with their latest slab of Swedish-styled retro death metal in the form of At the Caves of Eternal. Like everything they’ve released thus far in their four years of existence, Zombiefication has pulled no punches and delivered another nasty collection of old school death metal.

Though absolutely nothing on At the Caves of Eternal is remotely unique, it doesn’t mean the album – or Zombiefication for that matter – are just a bogus rip-off of everything that was created and released in the early 1990’s. They know how to shred the listener’s eardrums with savage and simple death metal, just the way it ought to be. Overflowing with nods to early Entombed/Grave/Dismember and host of others, At the Caves of Eternal is a treat to hear because of how smooth and deadly it is.

The nine songs on the album are all easily constructed; there are no finesse-laden frills here. They follow the simple blueprint of what made the glory days of Scandinavian (and some American) death metal so, uh, glorious “back in the day.” Easy riffs, simplistic drum patterns, and Petrov-esque vocals make everything about Zombiefication fun.

They don’t try to pretend they are anything else than a couple of dudes who love this particular style of metal and enjoy creating it. With a nasty production that sounds like it rolled right out of 1993, the record is a grimy, dirty, kickass ripper that seems to end too soon. And while this scribe typically loathes programmed drums, the ones heard on At the Caves of Eternal sound as organic and lively as any other heard before (if there is a human drummer behind the tracks, the liner notes of the promo don’t specify as such).

Is Zombiefication or anything they release going to ever be considered original or something that will reinvent the wheel? So far, the answer is a resounding “no” but that doesn’t matter. Unlike the majority of the newer bands playing this style of retro death metal, Zombiefication do a superb job of recreating a lost time in metal that was so precious to many. With Dismember disbanded and Entombed playing a much more rock-laden style of metal for years now, there’s no reason why Zombiefication can’t carry on the old school Swedish sound with their music, even if they are from Mexico.

[Visit the band's website]

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