Dying Fetus - War Of Attrition

If one would look up “Brutal Technical Death Metal Mixed With Hardcore” in a dictionary  there will probably be an image of Dying Fetus. Founded fifteen years ago by guitarist/vocalist John Gallagher, who’s in fact the only one left nowadays from the first line-up, the band now releases War Of Attrition, the follow up to 2003’s Stop At Nothing.

The release of Stop At Nothing in 2003 was notable since grunter/guitarist John Gallagher had just picked a whole new team for this record, after his band left him to form Misery Index. Now, four years later, it seems John had to sit down again to do some line-up re-arranging. Drummer Erik Sayanga is no longer with Dying Fetus, just like singer Vince Matthews. Where Duane Timlin made his entrance as the new drummer, the band didn’t bother to go out and search for a new singer. Bassist Sean Beasley just took over part of the vocals.

Quite some changes for a band, but nonetheless it doesn’t affect the tightness and brutality of the latest offering at all. Opening with “Homicidal Retribution”, the band makes pretty clear what they’re about. Brutal hyperspeed technical death metal with hardcore-esque breakdowns combined with thrash-riffs. Of course with the occasional synchronized guitar-tapping on both guitars and bass.

While at Stop At Nothing the boundaries of speed were touched every now and then, the band proves to be capable of more on War Of Attrition. Faster and more aggressive seems to be the task John Gallagher gave his bandmates. Production-wise the new album makes a huge leap forward, a wall of sound belts out of the speakers with a machinegun-like-rattling put underneath it by drummer Duane Timlin. Everything sounds perfect.

The machine-like perfection at such high speed probably leaves first time listeners thinking songs like “Parasites Of Catastrophe” are not even played by human, but completely done by computers.

An amazing album that will please a large number of extreme metalfans and will apply to mathcore fans too. Given the fact that everything has been put up a notch, one is left wondering though what the next album will sound like….