Faceless Burial: Grotesque Miscreation (2017)

This is Australian death metal band Faceless Burial's debut album.  And honestly, what drew me to it is the twisted creature on the cover.  I am going to say something pretty nerdy here, so here it goes.  This thing looks like one of the alien antagonists in Metroid Prime 2, the Ing I believe they were called.  The dark, twisted body on three legs.   So, with that, I decided to check it out.

Faceless Burial is listed on the Metal Archives as a black/death metal band, but I think that genre tag is incorrect.  I do not hear anything but death metal here.  Granted, the band's sound seems to pay tribute to several of the old school death metal sounds.  Take the unbridled aggression of Malevolent Creation, the occult atmosphere of Morbid Angel, the twisted weirdness of Immolation and the punishing violence of Sinister and that is a pretty close approximation of the band's sound.

For the most part, Faceless Burial's commitment to playing old school death metal results in a sound that is not exactly groundbreaking.  And for portions of the album, it just sort of drags on.  But there are definitely moments, such as the closing riff to "Black Ovulation" that really grab the attention of the listener. 

I enjoyed this album, but I would not say it is an essential release.  Faceless Burial seems to be still finding their individual sound.  This is still just a debut release.  It will be interesting to see where Faceless Burial goes from here.