Blood Red Throne - Altered Genesis
Earache Records - MOSH285CD - 2005
By Philip Whitehouse
First thing I want to say about this record - fuck me, I love this production. The guitars grind, growl and screech as though things possessed of sentience and malevolence, the drums clatter away with machine-gun like rapidity and consistency, and the bass guitar sounds like it was tuned to the key of Evil, all loose-stringed percussive clattering and ringing nastiness. It sounds like I always used to imagine death metal would sound before I got into it properly - like an imploding neutron star of malevolent intent, collapsing on itself with the listener in the centre. So, moving swiftly on...
Blood Red Throne is ex-
Emperor players Dod and Tchort's baby, if I recall properly - an exercise in Norwegian artists replicating the Floridian old-school brutal death metal sounds with uncanny accuracy and an ear for a nasty-ass riff. Throw in some nice old-school effects (left and right channel switching guitar riffs, for instance, or a
Carcass-like introductory piece, and you've got the ingredients for a thoroughly punishing album.
Altered Genesis delivers in spades.
Eye-Licker may have a god-awful title, but I'll be damned if that mid-tempo chug riff with the rolling kicks halfway through doesn't make for one evil groove... This entire album consists of nasty-ass grooves, pinned-to-the-wall intense riffage, down-tuned bombast and gloriously archaic attitude, wrapped up in that aforementioned pristine production.
If you're a fan of the Florida school of brutal death metal, you really need to have this in your collection.
8.5/10
Blood Red Throne Official Website
Earache Records
Devastating!
