Witching Hour Productions, 2017
Genre: Death Metal
1. Selected for Execution
2. Distant Horizon
3. The Sect
4. Glorious Death
5. Vengeance Sworn
6. Hang Them
7. Leave the World Burning
8. The Root of Life
9. Our Light
This new album from Masachist came out of nowhere for me. I hadn't heard anything from the project in a while and all of a sudden a brand new album hit this year! I absolutely loved "Scorned", so I ordered this as soon as I was able to get my hands on it. Being released on Witching Hour means it will have pretty good packaging and a booklet that is more than two pages. While this is true, it's one of the more simplistic layout designs I've seen from the label.
If you liked the groovier nature of "Scorned" along with the crushing Death Metal feel, then their new album will likely interest you. One of the things I liked about "Scorned" was its ability to blend the grooves and fast Death Metal together, I feel like "The Sect" is a bit more focused on the groove aspects of their arrangements. There are still certainly fast blasting moments in the album, but they are few and far between this time. Instead "The Sect" focuses on a more heavy atmosphere to get its point across. I do enjoy a lot of those dark atmospheric moments on this album, but I wish it was balanced out a bit more. I also think that, writing wise, "Scorned" was a little better. The atmosphere felt darker and more tangible. It's not that "The Sect" lets you down, and it does hit really good high points, it's just not as good as the prior album for me. Not being as good as a really good album, still means you're a good album. I certainly like it more than their debut, for example.
Masachist continue their march down the path I wish Decapitated had gone down, blending that Yattering and Decapitated style is always satisfying. "The Sect" is still a really good album and I like this style a lot more than a lot of other Death Metal being produced. It's also always nice to hear Sauron on vocals again. I really wish he did more, but hopefully Masachist will produce more music in the future. I realize all the members in this band must have extremely busy schedules with other projects, but hopefully more music will come.
Selfmadegod Records, 2012
Genre: Death Metal
1. Drilling the Nerves
2. The Process of Elimination
3. Straight and Narrow Path
4. Manifesto (100% D.M.K.M.)
5. Higher Authority
6. Opposing Normality
7. Liberation
8. Liberation Part II
9. Inner Void
Wow... this was unexpected. After listening to "Death March Fury" I find "Scorned" to be a surprising progression in the bands sound. While "Death March Fury" really did feel like a continuation of "The Negation"... "Scorned" is something really different and it's quite refreshing.
Maybe I simply don't consume that much Death Metal anymore, so similarities between projects might not be as apparent, but compared to what I've got in my collection "Scorned" stands out as a really different animal. Rather than an intense blast fest, such as "Death March Fury", "Scorned" is far more focused on driving rhythms and they're constructed in such a way to actually feel haunting at times rather than just building on grooves. Just listen to the slow blast sections of "Straight and Narrow Path" and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about. Are there punishing Death Metal riffs on this album? Certainly, but they're blended in with this really interesting material that gets the album to think beyond our usual grooves and punishing blasts. But I feel like that is a typical expectation for those involved with projects like Yattering and Decapitated. However, I think this group pushes the Death Metal envelope a little more in trying to add in more subtle elements in their compositions, which makes this album rather stand above a host of others out there.
Personally, "Scorned" is one of my favorite Death Metal albums. It pulls a lot of influences I enjoy and recasts them in a very well thought out fashion. They also took the time to write more normal length songs, so it doesn't feel as much like a blitzkrieg of blasting. This gives the songs room to breathe and allows the songs to have a much deeper and intense atmosphere. It creates for a much more dense feel to the music and it's unlike anything else I really hear in Death Metal today. I hear bands strike upon the elements in riffs here and there, but hardly an entire album of it and certainly not this cohesive!
Witching Hour Productions, 2009
Genre: Death Metal
1. Unveil the Grave
2. Inborn Obedience
3. Womb
4. Open the Wounds
5. Noxious
6. Malicious Cleansing
7. Appearance of the Worm
8. Crush Them!!!
9. Death Shall March
10. Open the Wounds (Promo 2007)
11. Malicious Cleaning (Promo 2007)
Somehow, I didn't hear about this project until the release of their second album. As a fan of early Decapitated and Yattering, I'm kind of dismayed I missed this until now. Here we are though... Masachist, featuring a veritable who's who of the Polish Death Metal scene. Masachist is, essentially a super group, and "Death March Fury" lives up to exactly that.
"Death March Fury" reminds of the next logical progressions of Decapitated's "The Negation", so if you are a fan of that album and are disappointed in the shift in Decapitated's sound, then Masachist is where you want to be looking. It's an advancement in many ways, because it features the stellar guitar arrangements of Thrufel and if anyone remembers Yattering, then you're in for a real treat! Throw in the punishing drum arrangements of Daray and you've got a real special album on your hands. We also have Heinrich covering the bass lines and many will recognize him from the band Vesania. The other guitarist, Aro, I'm mostly familiar with in terms of as an engineer and he's done some great work in that regard and obviously works wonderfully within the realms of Masachist.
If you managed to get a hold of the limited edition digi-pack like me, then you'll have two extra songs available. These are the two promo songs recorded in 2007 before Pig joined on vocals. The vocal work is being handled by Thrufel on these songs and he does a pretty good job. The production doesn't feel as heavy and punishing as the final album versions. While Thrufel does good vocal work, I do prefer Pig's vocals and its always nice to see him return to Death Metal. I was sad to see him leave Decapitated and I kind of stopped following that project when he left.
So, if you like punishing modern Polish Death Metal, Masachist is a must buy. It's both rhythmic and punishing at the same time, which is something I enjoy quite a bit from the Polish scene. For me, a lot of other Death Metal bands merely do one or the other, but not both so seamlessly. I also feel like there's this underlying layer of darkness in their sound that sets them apart from other regions of the world. Even though some riffing has obvious influences, such as you always hear Morbid Angel styled riffing in these projects, but they combine it with other elements in such a way that just feels different to me.
In the end, the only complaint I could really level at this release is that the songs are too short. In some ways I feel like the project is still just figuring itself out and the musicians will need to work together to figure out their own more unique song structure. For now, I'm content with a good album, that features nothing all that new to the Death Metal scene, but with competent musicians behind the project they can make this feel worthwhile.
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