The Book of Lambs

This is also one of those rare and great albums that has its own sound. The sound is a little bit like Suffocation meets Sinister and a host of other bands that sound like them. In one word, it is optimal death metal sound, with only one problem, the triggered double bass work. Being a drummer I understand the necessity for triggers on the double bass for parts that are as fast as these ones. However, I still deplore the way they sound, and on an album, you can always just crank it up. Live, however, this is not always the case. The snare and cymbals and everything else sound too good to be true. The guitar work also sounds excellent, they really jump out as sweet sounding guitars, like I said, optimal in my opinion. They are dense and menacing, they do not lose any of the tone of old school bands, but at the same time sound a lot sharper then old bands, sticking somewhat closer to the modern technical death school of dense, layered guitar sound. The bass seems undistorted, but is fairly low in the mix, but in this music, the bass guitar is kind of just a filler instrument. So it does what it needs, adding flesh to the guitar tone. The production on the vocals are also really nice, they add to his deep, growling voice. This vocal recording is really in line with the death metal classics, loud enough to be heard over everything, but not too loud to obscure the riffage.

And what riffage it is! Many people say it sounds too much like Hate Eternal, but I do not agree. Hate Eternal has their own way of playing, and this sounds nothing like it, the timing and switches and the chords and progressions do not seem to me to follow their lead, and the riffs and instrumentation are also very different, weirder in my opinion. This album of course is taken by the drums. There are two drummers on here who rule, the Angelcorpse guy, and of course Derek Rodney. These two guys are heavy weights in every sense of the word, they are some of the best drummers this kind of non-stop riff obsessed technical death metal has to offer. So this is a real drum feast, but the guitars still take a lot of the credit sound wise. This is due to the fact that Internecine is the brain child of a guitarist/vocalist, and the fact that Erik Rutan plays solos on this, which makes it oh so sweet.

If you like this type of death metal, you will like this album. I cannot believe the reviews I have read for it, and strongly disagree with my peers on this site, for I think that not only is this a death metal monument in the sense that it has its own sound, is fiercely technical, and has great production, but also in the sense that it is absolutely all star. Generally all star bands do tend to suck, but here it works out in a way that everyone gets to have a piece of the cake. Highly recommended for drummers.

Internecine, well known as the project of ex-Hate Eternal/Morbid Angel guitarist, Jared Anderson, is a small and more unknown project. For this solo project Jared hired Tony Laureano(Nile, ex-Malevolent Creation, ex-God Dethroned, Angelcorpse, ex-Acheron) and Derek Roddy(ex-Nile, ex-Malevolent Creation, Hate Eternal, ex-Divine Emperor, Deboning Method, ex-Council of the Fallen, ex-Aurora Borealis) to do the drums on the album. With the help of Hammerheart Records(now Karmageddon Media), Jared was able to fulfill his thirst for this metal project that has been around for 5 years prior to this release.

Internecine's the book of lambs is the standard death metal album. Technical guitar work at inhumanly fast speeds. Technical and brutal drumming style, and the ever notable gutteral vocals. Overall the album is pretty generic, but with the gutteral vocals and shreding guitar work this album is one death metal album that you'll enjoy over and over again and despite it's lack of originality, The Book of lambs is still an overall good album to kick back to when you want to listen to some plain death metal. The overall sound is very similar to Hate Eternal, and a good listen to fans of that band.