The Cleansing, Poisoned Legacy
Taking cues from Immolation, Morbid Angle and Vader, Copenhagen, Denmark’s The Cleansing are your next back alley fix for bruising death metal. Carrying that familiar Danish death metal tone through crushing riffs and guttural vocals, Poisoned Legacy never really pushes any boundaries, yet still delivers body blow after body blow of bestial devastation.
There’s a measured restraint to the band’s delivery — keeping a short leash on their manic blasts and technical wizardry, leaving their sound moderate yet punishing. The band’s self control also allows for them to cruise through some burly death metal grooves while allowing creative flourishes to shine through here and there. Sure there’s nothing revolutionary here, but the presentation and band’s pedigree are enough to keep you highly entertained throughout the album.
Architectural Infinity
A few light sound effects bring in a big scream and pile driving drumming. The guitars are pretty straightforward for the most part, filling your ears with bruising riffs and catchy hooks. The vocals are fairly menacing and guttural, fitting the music perfectly. Head banging grooves will have you nodding along in no time. The lead after the 2:30 mark is a nice touch before the band jumps into the mosh blender.
Flesh Recycled
Galloping riffs and another huge scream get the blood flowing with this next one’s manic pace. “Flesh Recycled” is a bruising song with plenty of tempo changes and crushing groove. The lead at 3:45 is pretty damned shredding and a fitting way to end the song.
Ghost Lights
Hammer fisted drums open up the groove for this next one. The vocal pattern for this one is catchy as hell. There’s something about this album that gives its middle of the road sound much more impact and I don’t think it’s the production. These guys certainly know how to play their instruments and it shows — perhaps that’s why I’m loving this disc so much.
Insects In The Void
“Insects In The Void” sounds like the title of a cheesy, straight-to-video horror movie. Thankfully, the music behind the title sounds like anything but that. The pummeling drums are unrelenting as some nice depth is added tot he vocals, keeping them from becoming too monotonous.
Harnessed By The Shadows
This one might be my favorite song on the album. It’s bruising, has a great chugging rhythm and keeps your head banging from beginning to end. The vocals are delivered with a bit more ferocity and the drumming is straight from the depths of hell. It’s also got one of the better leads on the album.
The Prodigal Son
Maniacal drumming and driving riffs dominate this next song as layered vocals add depth and a touch of evil to the song. There’s a good chance that 50% of you sick bastards listening to this song will end up spraining your neck trying to keep up with the unrelenting pace.
Deliverance
Hell yeah! The opening to “Deliverance” is fucking sweet. The band change the flow up a bit with this one, creating a wall of destruction with chugging riffs and crashing drums. There is some slick guitar work throughout this song that really shows what these guys are more than capable of.
The Domino Of Phantom Effects
The ambient start to this next song is a bit of a welcome reprieve from the crushing onslaught that we’ve been dealt thus far on Poisoned Legacy. The slow build up of burly riffs and steady drum work makes for an epic feel that’s in the same vein as vintage Vader. As much as I really enjoy “Harnessed by the Shadows,” this is by far the best song on the album, but that could be due to it’s overall vibe when compared to the rest of the songs.
Derelict
“Derelict” starts off with some catchy riffs before settling into the band’s comfort zone of crushing, grooving death metal. The blasting drums at 1:50 erupt like the pounding hooves of the four horsemen.
Awoken At Gunpoint
The final song on a pretty damned good album starts off slowly, building to galloping guitars and vocals that seem that much more guttural and evil. This song, however, breathes a bit more and doesn’t really weigh you down too much despite the thick tones (like several of the songs before it).
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Additional Notes:
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