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Masachist > Death March Fury > Reviews
Masachist - Death March Fury

Death metal fury - 85%

dismember_marcin, August 25th, 2012

You could have had some reservations, before checking out Masachist, thinking that it will be yet another project of people, who’re involved in some more known bands and who suddenly felt so bored that they formed a side project to get some easy cash. But I hope your doubts have been all crushed by the great music of Masachist as well as by the fact that it became a normal band, not a weekend project of talented musicians. All in all, Thrufel has left Azarath and now all his energy and riffs are sacrificed for Masachist. And Daray may be sometimes busy playing gigs with Dimmu Borgir or some other bands, which he is involved, but I guess Masachist is not a type of band, which needs to play ten tours per year, so it is not a problem. Just to make your knowledge complete, in case you don’t know, Masachist line up consists of also Sauron, who used to be a growler in Decapitated plus guys, who’re in bands like Vesania and Shadows Land. “Death March Fury” is the first album from Masachist, released in 2009 and I must say that if you’re into Polish and US death metal – or modern, fast, slightly technical death metal at all – then this album will make your heart pound more intensely and blood splash all over the place, when your guts and other internal organs will be all ripped out.

The title is excellent, but maybe this album should be called “Death Metal Fury”, as this is exactly what this music brings - a relentless dose of aggression and brutality; fury and devastation; pure, musical massacre. Right from the first sound Masachist delivers an intensity, which will really cause the bloodshed and which we all love in this sort of music. The playing is tight as hell, often it is fast like there was some sort of death race going on, but luckily Masachist doesn’t bore with only one way of playing and diverse the music as much as it is possible in this kind of death metal… Many slower parts will break your necks and some technical, more complex structures and riffs will make the whole even more lethal. The songwriting is really great here. I can definitely say that the riffs are just brilliant and all arrangements and performances from each of band members are truly top notch. And it doesn’t matter if we listen to such a variety of songs like the slower, more groovy “Appearance of the Worm” or those totally fast neckbreakers like “Unveil the Grave”, “Open the Wounds” and “Crush Them!!!!!!”. The quality of this material never fails and I must say that I am truly impressed with the drumming of Daray, as well as by the guitarist’s work. I also like Sauron’s vocals, which are close to the classic Floridian death metal growls of Brett Hoffmann and Frank Mullen. Great! And all this is squeezed in barely 25 minutes of music, so you can imagine how intense the time, which you’ll spend on this album, is (but the re-release version of “Death March Fury” has two bonus tracks, mind that!).

Style wise I can definitely say that Masachist offers everything, what is best in this so called modern death metal, when it’s played with passion and at the same time it is still audible, without too complex and too unreadable structures. If I’ll make the comparisons to the likes of Trauma, Malevolent Creation, Decapitated, Immolation, recent Suffocation albums and some Brazilian devastators like Rebaelliun and Krisiun, then I guess you should have a clear vision of “Death March Fury”… And if you call yourself a fan of any of these bands, then I must sincerely recommend you Masachist. You won’t feel disappointed, trust me!

Standout tracks: “Appearance of the Worm”, “Unveil the Grave”, “Crush Them!!!!!!”

Destroys, but does not leave much marks - 60%

Lane, May 13th, 2012

Another death metal band from Poland... But this time around it's something special, because Masachist was formed by guitar player Mariusz "Trufel" Domaradzki (also in Yattering and Azarath) and drummer Dariusz "Daray" Brzozowski (also in Vesania and known from his work with Vader among other bigger names). The vocalist spot was given to ex-Decapitated man Wojciech "Sauron / Pig" Wasowicz, and Arkadiusz "Aro" Jablonski (also in Shadows Land and Torquemada) was added as a second guitarist and Filip "Heinrich" Halucha (also in Vesania and Rootwater) as bass player. So they aren't novices...

And it can be heard. Everything is performed with skill, but it's more about intensity than technicality. Just look at the song lengths and what do they tell you? Yes, the music is mostly of very high velocity. A lot of blast beating and otherwise top speed tempos insanely forged by Daray. Two guitarists try their best to utilize their quick fingers, so there is a lot of cool light speed riffs to be heard. The bass is a bit under other instruments, but what is heard of it it's fast. Oh, what a surprise... Yes, the music is very fast for a big part, but these guys are so seasoned and they know, that at times it's a must to slow the pace to intrigue listeners. Music-wise, this is not groundbreaking at all. Masachist sound somewhat like if Vader, Krisiun and Immolation jammed together with Napalm Death. That's to say, that Masachist's compositions are never very straight, but they more like summon a vortex of death metal (yes, it's still death metal despite its grindcore influences) that go from a start to end through a few points. At any point, this album is no background music, but it needs constant attention from a listener.

The production of the album is quite raw yet balanced. Suits well with their brutal music. Especially the guitars sound ripping. At the fastest, the drumming sounds almost mechanic, so fast it is.

Masachist has grown from a project to a real band. They have created some devastating stuff here, but a majority of it is just too easy to forget. The songs did not find their targets too well here, but if you want some punishing death metal with grindcore influence, there are far less intriguing records out there. Masachist pack a lot of promise, but catchier song material wouldn't harm 'em!

(originally written for ArchaicMetallurgy.com in 2010)

Masachist - Death march fury - 75%

Phuling, July 7th, 2009

Every now and then a band comes along that everyone hails since it has recognized musicians in it, and Masachist will probably be one of those bands. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a super-group, but it has former/present members of acts such as Vader, Decapitated, Azarath (etc), so there’s no question about their relations towards playing death metal. They’ve been around the block, so to speak. "Death march fury" is their debut album. It’s only 26 minutes long, which I know a lot of people will nag about, but I don’t have a problem with it. It’s better to have a release on the short side to make people long for more than to have it way too long so the listeners get bored.

Their sound feels abit like a mix of the early Floridian style established by bands such as Cannibal Corpse and Deicide many years ago, and the European style we all know and love Vader for. I know it’s typical for people to compare Polish death metal bands with Vader, but I can’t help but to do it this time. The music has that certain mixture of melody and brutality that reminds me a lot of said band. Their technical skill is pretty much impeccable, and you can sense their adeptness with their instruments without it reaching show-off class. The music often goes from serious blasting to a halt, where heaviness and groove takes over, only to abruptly erupt into brutality once again. There’s a lot of tempo changes and variety, which keeps it interesting. The growls are of the kind that doesn’t reach piglet-torture and bowel-spewing noises (eventhough the vocalist Wojciech has ’Pig’ for a nickname), but remains just growls. It fits the concept perfectly, as the slick guitar lines add a touch of melody whilst still remaining fairly brutal.

At times the music has such nuance that I can’t say how many different guitar lines are rupturing my speakers, like for instance in "Womb". Throughout "Appearance of the worm" they show us their nack for creating slower, heavier and intriguing tunes, as the track has a serious groove.

But the album does have its bad sides. One of them is the freaking booklet; I can hardly read the lyrics. The booklet (as well as the digipack in general) looks pretty good, but the lyrics look like some kind of calligraphy-writing, which makes it rather hard to read. It bugs the hell out of me when I try to read along and get stuck on a phrase that’s just indistinguishable. But ok, I’ll let it slide and not have it ruin the entire experience.

The band comes off as a tight, massive death metal squadron capable of delivering seriously arse-shredding riffs, blastbeats and growls. The sound is pretty massive as well, but still I’m not entirely sure Masachist will climb the ladder to join their fellow countrymen in Vader and Behemoth as some of the world’s elite. No matter the quality it doesn’t show a lot individuality, nothing that really distinguishes this band from the rest. But I have no doubt they’ll develop a big following if they just continue as a band, and not fall into the category of one-hit-wonder-super-groups.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net