March of the Hordes / Escape the Flesh, split

I love short, brutal split releases like this four track helping from a pair of Czech Republic bands, Escape the Flesh and March of the Hordes. It offers you the opportunity to check out a couple of groups you may have never heard of without having to invest too much (money or time) in to the effort. It also helps when said split release is comprised of no-frilled, bad-to-the-bone death metal.

The first two tracks come from March of the Hordes who deliver crusty, densely thick buzzing guitars, loose drums and snarling growls. “Frozen Void” is the better of the two offerings and is complete with a decent bit of Entombed/Dismember worship served through heavily buzzed-out and textured riffs. “Last Stand of Heaven” is the slower of the two from MOTH and is also a little looser with the drums, but still delivers a solid helping of evil death metal.

The final tracks come from the more methodical Escape the Flesh who deliver a similar style of death metal, but with less guitar buzz and an overall fuller feel. It’s still pretty crusty, but is a good deal cleaner and more focused on groove instead of all-out destruction. “The Black Fog” is probably my favorite of this short offering with it’s slower, doomier approach. It’s not the most well-written track on the split, but it’s suffocating and evil as fuck.

Between these two bands, you’ve got yourself a nice juxtaposition of styles. Sure both bands play a brand of old school death metal, but one delivers a more frenetic attack, while the other prefers to bludgeon you with its mid-paced groove and doom influence. Either way, a split like this is win-win in my book.