Indhentet af Døden

It takes something pretty impressive for me to get worked up about a straight-down-the-line death metal album nowadays, particularly when that album features so few guitar solos, but Undergang have done it. Indhentet af Døden was actually released on vinyl in January last year, but it’s only recently made it to a CD release, hence the 2011 tag. It’s the first album from a band with roots in their local crust scene, and this perhaps explains the total lack of frills in their music, as well as the stomping, antisocial sense of raucous groove which drives every single note. Despite that, this is not just one of the most unpretentious and enjoyable death metal release I’ve heard in some time, it’s also one of the heaviest. This is heavy! Heavy!! Yeah?

The band’s most obvious influence is probably Autopsy. The sound is deep and rumbling, and is apt at every opportunity to dive from up-tempo early-Swedeath-influenced blasting into bone-shaking slow riffs clawed in wragged handfuls from Mental Funeral’s leprous flesh. Listen to Dødshymne (from 1:23) for an example of how wonderfully vile slow sections in death metal can sound. There’s also an occasional penchant for violently bluesy hooks, as on Evigt Lidende, suggesting fleeting similarities with Entombed style death ‘n’ roll, albeit delivered in a less accessible package. In fact, the sheer austerity of it- with its obsessive focus on its gnarled, earthy riffing at the expense of any and all ornamentation- also invokes Napalm Death circa Harmony Corruption.

But let us away from these comparisons. Indhentet af Døden is a unique record due to its perfectly-formed constituent parts. Anders Dödshjælp’s bass clunks and belches in truly pustulent fashion, giving Undergang’s sound a flatulent bottom end which is obscenely exposed by the unintelligibly deep bass guitar breakdowns of the title track and Opslugt Af Mørket. The drumming is appropriately simplistic, a knuckleheaded accompanying thud. But the real star of the sound is vocalist and guitarist David Torturdöd. His guitar tone is so corpulent that it could disable a sewage system, and his utterly distinctive vocals are the sound made by the slowly sliding lid of an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. Oooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrghhhhhh!

In short, if you are a death metal fan, you need this. Indhentet af Døden is an album of enthralling brutality and crushing heaviness. For my money it even surpasses Autopsy’s current effort (which is no easy task) by virtue of its pummelling energy and gut-scraping delivery. Undergang are a formidable force in death metal.