Murder Squad-Ravenous Murderous
Candlelight Records/Threeman Recordings-CDL121/TRECD007-2004
By Josh Phillips
Murder Squad originally formed in 1993, but for many years, weren’t able to get together to create an album because of the members many other side projects. Finally, in 2001, the band’s debut
Unsane, Insane and Mentally Deranged was released and they are back again with follow up
Ravenous Murderous. The band consists of Matti Kärki (vocals), Ufo Cederlund (guitar), Rickard Cabeza (bass) and Peter Stjärnvind (drums). Some of the other projects of these fellows include
Entombed,
Dismember and
Damnation (Swe). This group started out playing
Autopsy covers and some consider them a tribute of said band, so if you like that group, chances are you’ll like this one. Chris Reifert of
Autopsy even makes a guest appearance on this release contributing backing vocals among other things.
Opener “Ravenous, Murderous” is slow to mid-paced throughout and gives us a chance to get acquainted with the vocal style of Matti Kärki, which has more of a gurgle to it than a rasp and reminds of John Tardy from
Obituary and Patrick Mameli from
Pestilence to some degree. Things begin to pick up with “I am Eternal”, a faster song in parts that features some punky riffs before drifting off to become more sludge oriented. “Epidermal Massacre” is the more death metal oriented music I had been waiting for, featuring a great backbone riff and an excellent intro/outro spitting vocal. Track 5, “Spunkslut” is a definite highlight with a ripping lead to burst out of the gates and driving riffs to take over from there. The leads continue to echo through in the middle of the song before emerging again. You can even shout along to this one as Matti shouts out “Spunkslut” continuously throughout the track. Through these pieces we pretty much see where the album is going, mixing and matching these traits. For the most part though, the album remains at a slower pace, sometimes so slow its almost like listening to doom and at other times picking it up to a mid-paced groove. The one thing that remains constant is the incredible lead work. This album is packed with melodic leads that fly in from out of nowhere and shred you to pieces before leaving as abruptly as they came. The final three songs are all solid and end the album on a high note after a few bland tracks in the middle.
Overall, there are some real solid songs and about as much filler, with the music just being too slow for my tastes a lot of the time and it didn’t meet my expectations musically. I kept waiting for the band to kick it up a notch and just groove along before throwing in one of those wicked leads, but for the most part this release moved along at a slow, sludgy and ultimately unsatisfying pace.
6.5/10
Official Candlelight USA Website
Official Threeman Recordings Website
