Refusal: Epitome of Void (2019)

Recently I was kind of wondering how some of the bands who have previously contacted me through the blog for the purpose of requesting a review have been doing.  One of those such bands was Refusal, a Finnish death/thrash metal band.  I reviewed two of their early releases and was very impressed by them.  Well, it was a good time to check because Refusal just released their second full-length this year.

By and large, Refusal's sound has not changed much over the years.  They still play fast-paced old-school-sounding death metal with a punk/thrash attitude.  The guitars have a similar kind of buzzsaw guitar tone that is closely associated with the Swedish death metal scene of the early 1990's.  In fact, a lot about this sounds Swedish to me.  It is something of a mix between The Crown and Dismember.  There are some damn catchy, grooving riffs present on this thing, something that was common in the band's early demos and EPs. 

The vocals are still very impressive.  The primary vocal style is a deep guttural roar.  But frequently there is more of a high-pitched scream added in for good measure and to keep things varied. 

I always liked this band and wondered how they would do with a full-length album.  It turns out they did quite well.  I am not sure how I missed out on the band's first full-length (as well as a number of other demos and EPs), but I am glad I came back around now to hear this one.  Refusal does not do anything ground-breaking here, but they play some damn fun, rollicking death metal and every single song is quality.