Severed Savior

Servile Insurrection

Written by: AB on 20/11/2008 02:33:49

Long time no death metal review. Which is a shame, and something I want to change. Having recently received Severed Saviour's newest release, I thought it would be a good idea to postpone my exam essay a little further (procrastinating? who?) and listen to some quality death metal instead. Yay! Severed Saviour is a Californian DM outfit who plays the, in the later years, so well known Californian brutal death metal, God bless them. Being not mind blowingly technical as fellow Californian brutal DM bands Odious Mortem, Decrepit Birth, et al, but conversely not mind destroyingly stupid death n' roll either, they released their first full length "Brutality Is Law" all the way back in 2003. "Brutality Is Law" soon became a small favourite of mine with its super mix of to-the-point brutality, groove and general head bangingness. Needless to say, I've been looking forward to "Servile Insurrection" ever since "Brutality Is Law" and it'll be interesting to see if Severed Saviour has followed the trend of their scene that's been getting increasingly technical at late.

Let's start off by saying, they're still brutal as fuck! Opener "Question" starts out sounding like Suffocation with PMS, but one quikly discovers that the band's been working more with the guitars, with some small, quirky leads being thrown into the death riffing and brutal Frank Mullen-like growls of vocalist Trapani. Aggressive, heavy, filled with time signature changes and the odd New York death metal inspired breakdown, as well as some short but super soloing, makes this is a serious step up in complexity for Several Saviour! We even get a few seconds worth of jazzy guitar outro before next track is up and takes over where "Question" ended.

The rest of the album follows the new formula. Technical brutal death metal with a strange sense of groove, driven forward by the awesome guitarwork. The almost peculiar leads that break up the sometimes chugging death metal riffing are awesome, the signature changes make the songs lively and interesting. Every once in a while we are treated to small solos that together with the short leads create an odd sense of melody in the midst of the brutality. There are even two instrumental songs on the album, one with 'just' death metal music, and the other, "Intervallo Del Tradimento", is soft and sweet guitar chillin' in the midst of the onslaught. This little intervention only lasts 49 seconds though, then the death metal (with growls!) kicks in again. I have already talked a little of Trapani's vocals, but they deserve to be mentioned again. They should be familiar to all the fans of Odious Mortem as he is on growl duty in both bands. His really deep growling suits this kind of brutal death metal, though not the sick sounds we all know and love from Disgorge etc. Super!

Well that's that. Adding nothing new to the genre, Severed Saviour nevertheless plays extremely well done technical DM, hitting a nerve with their mix of Suffocation and Odious Mortem. I don't believe "Servile Insurrection" will win new fans over to this, the best of genres [Ed note: Questionable], on the other hand this is a release I'll recommend to every DM fan. They might be preaching to the converted, but they sure as hell are preachin' gooood.

8

Download: Question, Acts of Sedition, Inverted And Inserted
For The Fans Of: Odious Mortem, early Decrepit Birth, Suffocation
Listen: MySpace

Release date 25.11.2008
Candlelight

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