Life Everlasting Metal ...

When I think of Christian metal, I think of brilliant thrash bands like Believer and Tourniquet, Grindcore/ death metallers like Mortification and Crimson Thorn and unblack metal bands like Horde and Crimson Moonlight. Mind you, I've spent years broadening my knowledge of the Christian extreme metal scene. Most people I know think Christian metal is simply Stryper or to a lesser extent King's X.

One of my goals with this blog was to expose the large and varied Christian metal scene. Today I'm going to look at Kentucky's Christian death metal band Corpse and their one full length release on the now defunct Cling label "From The Grave". I got this album as a replacement for a Gryp cd I ordered from Blastbeats (your source for hard-hitting Christian music) when the used Gryp album was deemed unplayable by the sites administrators.

Mind you, Corpse's album is one that I'd been thinking of so it wasn't a bad trade off and I have recently acquired the Gryp album "Indecision" that I had originally requested so don't worry!

What we have here is old school death metal not unlike Cannibal Corpse and perhaps some influence from Lament. This is raw bone grinding death metal that is not trying to be innovative or ground-breaking, but simply looking to beat their message over the listener's head with some solid crunch.

Beginning with a brooding and dark intro "Left To Die" growls its way into a pummeling death metal gem. Without dwelling too much on individual songs, there is not a ton of variation I'll just say that other songs like "Black Death" and "Deceived" blast the listener with crushing riffs and beats as well as some acoustical interludes which makes me think of Lament.

"Faith" builds into its speed and "The Will" builds on that. Songs like "In Doubt" and "So Called Unity" add some groove to the riffs and melodies while slowing things down a bit. Corpse also sporadically throw in some nice and spastic at time solo's through out.

My favourite tracks are "Regrets" slow crunch and mid-paced brooding. It's a heavy tune with Gregorian-like background vocals that add to its darkness. "Deceived" varied tempo's and crushing riff work is a fine example of this bands grasp of the genre.

If it weren't for the odd ~Jesus is Life~ and ~don't waste your life and believe in the Truth~ type lyrics that seep through with guttural clarity one might not even know they are Christian. Overall, this is a solid death metal album with great production and solid song-writing. My main complaint is that most songs just end with any warning and feel like they've been cut off. They could use a little extra care with outros.

Coming up next I'll be looking at Groms "Ascension" album and more solid Christian death metal.