After a demo and an EP, Deathmarch (Amersfoort, the Netherlands) finally deliver their debut album, Violent Retaliation, almost ten years after forming. Plenty of time to mature, and the band members clearly know their way around the underground scene, with ties to Pleurisy and Bloodphemy. So yeah, you know what you are getting: pure old school death metal, what the kids these days apparently call “OSDM,” because apparently just saying “old school death metal” is too much effort.
Violent Retaliation throws you straight back to the early nineties, recalling the likes of Entombed, Dismember, and Grave. After a brief intro track, Experience My Hate hits like a freight train with massive production. The HM-2 guitar tone is like a chainsaw tearing through wet concrete: raw, brutal, and unapologetic. The riffs hit hard, no frills, just powerchords locked in with the bass, pounding like a fist through the speakers. Olav Bus delivers his vocals with full conviction. I do miss a bit of variation, as some dirty tremolo melodies or solos would not hurt, and they would fit perfectly in this style.
The drums lay down solid grooves and push the songs forward, occasionally opening the throttle with some killer breaks that keep things interesting. One minor gripe is the frequent use of mid-tempo blastbeats that, for me, do not quite sustain the energy. In our circles, we jokingly call these “pizza beats.” I would prefer to hear double-time hi-hat or ride patterns in those sections, though clearly it is a stylistic choice many bands in this genre stick to.
I Am Your Nightmare is a standout where their crust and hardcore influences hit hardest. My favorite track so far. Death metal meshes surprisingly well with this kind of punky chaos, something Gorerotted proved long ago. I would love to hear more of this hardcore-infused side on future releases as well as throughout the record. The filthy, punky edge fits the album’s themes perfectly and complements the rebellious artwork.
All in all, Violent Retaliation is a solid slab of old school death metal. Personally, I miss some hooks, and I would welcome some solos or dirty melodic riffs that stick in your head amidst the chainsaw wall of sound. But let’s be honest, Deathmarch probably could not care less about the personal preferences of a narrow-minded black-metal fan with the attention span of a goldfish, and rightly so. I get distracted halfway through my own sentences, yet I can still tell this is relentless, uncompromising, and unflinching. I can already imagine this material tearing apart a live crowd. This is an album built for the pit.
75/100