Deceased to Exist

Swedes and their old school death metal. Read no further if those words already sicken you, but if you are one of those who still check out new bands playing what Dismember, Entombed and Grave did twenty years ago, proceed: Maim’s second album Deceased to Exist, released during the first days of this year, is a very solid piece in that certain style.

And lucky for them, they have not utilized the biggest clichés available, namely the buzzing guitar sound; instead, the guitar sound here is just purely heavy and deep, and so are all the other instruments as well, much thanks to the highly reverberating production that is a definite plus feature of Deceased to Exist, creating an abyssal atmosphere.

Also, the band knows how to slow down and still sound utterly menacing: while songs like the opener ”Gravedigger Sacrifice” attack with moderately high speed, there are, for instance, the Archgoat esque sections of ”Morbid Desecration” and the wholly slow-tempo, doomy ”Crematory” that belong to Deceased to Exist’s finest moments. Another highlight worth mentioning is the closer "Screams of the Mutilated" that, even if otherwise unsurprising, ends the album in sinister solos and spoken samples in the background.

Towards the end of the album the similarity of the songs becomes a little dulling, but nonetheless I can say that Deceased to Exist is a fine old school death metal album with convincing heaviness and darkness. After all, it's not every day when you come across this well done production job combined with crushing, evil compositions. Fans of the style won’t waste their time at all checking out this album, I’m sure.

3 / 5
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To deliver an album, which would at least equal the awesomeness of the debut, must have been a real challenge for Maim. Well, as some of you might have read in my review, I just loved “From the Womb to the Tomb” LP and couldn’t imagine that the band would ever be able to put out even better album. If “Deceased to Exist” prevails over its predecessor, we’ll get to that later, now I can only write that I’m first and foremost happy that Maim has released a second album so quickly and didn’t surrender or disappeared somewhere in the pits of their tomb. This new LP comes in a yellow coloured digipack, as well as on 300 copies limited vinyl, which I actually hold in my hands with pride (also cursing that the label decided to press more copies, but this time on 180 grams transparent yellow / black splatter vinyl). It definitely was a must for me to purchase a copy of this vinyl and I remember that I’ve just been shaking in excitement, when have been unpacking the parcel with this album. Yeahhhh!!! Who doesn’t love this feeling?

The way this album starts is like a burst of sudden, relentless energy, hitting you right in the face and slashing with cruel, sharp riffing, making a horrifying carnage until there’s not much more left than just warm, bloodied remains of flesh and bones. The opening part of "Gravedigger Sacrifice" is just ruthless aggression, death metal violence, fast, obscure and I guess this might be the most brutal of all Maim’s songs so far. Think of Sepultura’s “Morbid Visions”, think of Repugnant’s “Epitome of Darkness”, Carnage’s “Dark Recollections”… What a killer tune, this should be Sweden’s national anthem for fuck sake. And “Covet Death” or „Screams from the Mutilated” or “Purged Through Napalm” deliver even more cruel and brutal bloodbath.

But I personally prefer Maim in those slower and more hmm… atmospheric, if I can use this words, fragments, like the beginning of “Morbid Desecration” or some parts of “Evil Smell of Death” and “Nuclear Funeral” (A “Leprosy” worship in it??!!!) or the awesome instrumental “Crematory” – they have amazing, morbid and freezing riffs, which combine the cults of Nihilist, Autopsy and first two Death albums into one stinking zombie. Absolutely killer shit and it’s a shame that Maim doesn’t play like that more often. I love the creepy mood in those parts and man, this is something that can be played on my funeral (where of course I’m hoping to rise from the dead and eat all those attending the ceremony hehe). Maim again proves that they may not be the most original of all bands, but they have a great ability to create the sinister mood and to compose killer, amazing riffs and this is their greatest strength. And metal in general is all about the riffs, right? They make us bang our skulls; they force us to play the air guitar. Maim also has those memorable sing-along choruses, which distinguish each song and make them slightly catchier… And so they proved that they rightfully have the place in the pack of leading Swedish death metal bands and along with the likes of Bastard Priest, Death Breath and Bombs of Hades (to these three acts I can compare Maim most) plus Morbus Chron and Tribulation they are the name to worship.

One more thing, which I need to underline also is the production of “Deceased to Exist”, which is raw and filthy, with very old school feeling of course and which has an awesome sound of live recording, very vital and if you close your eyes, you may think the band performs these songs right in your room. And so there’s just one more questions to answer, one which I asked at the beginning – does “Deceased to Exist” prevail over its predecessor? Well, it a tough one, but to be honest I’d rather call it even, although I may have some more sympathy for the astonishing debut, as it came out at the time, when this old school revival was just starting and this LP crushed me unexpectedly, coming out of the shadows like Freddy Kruger. Don’t be surprised though if after listening to it, you’ll visit the nearest graveyard and start digging some graves looking for something to eat! All in all, rotten human flesh is so sweet?! 666!
Standout tracks: “Crematory”, “Morbid Desecration”, “Deceased to Exist”, “Gravedigger Sacrifice”… or let’s just mention this whole fuckin album!

Those who had a chance to hear Maim's 2009 debut From the Tomb to the Womb will likely have been impressed by the band's simple but effective trapping of the classic Swedish death metal tone and atmosphere, like a fly in amber. Granted, there are hundreds of bands barking up the same tree, all in libation to the gods of the late 80s and early 90s, but there is something to this unit's simplicity that distinguishes them alongside other hopefuls like Bastard Priest or Tormented. Deceased to Exist, the sophomore, once again issued through the promising Soulseller Records, sees the band continue this journey, by asserting not only their core, local sound, but a slew of other influences that mold it into a crushing experience.

Most importantly, they can write, and nowhere is this more obvious than the opener to the album, "Gravedigger Sacrifice", which shifts from a forward, thrusting velocity to damp breaks of writhing, thrashing pestilence, above which Rikard's howling grunts serve as a clarion to the grotesque, a call to the rising of the dead. "Morbid Desecration" is what happens when you take the slower pace of classic Death (circa Leprosy) and collide it into a sweeping, monolithic groove circa Hellhammer. "Crematory" is pure atmospheric death/doom, crushing and beautiful as its lamenting melodies cascade subtly over the sparse, bludgeoning chords. Makes me wonder how good this band might be if they went strictly in that direction, yet the variety here is a strength unto itself. Later strong points on the album include the d-beat grinding of "Nuclear Funeral", "Screams of the Mutilated", and "Resurrected from Hell", which more directly mirror their influence from the usual suspects: Entombed, Dismember, Grave, and so forth.

But any critique of this album would be meaningless without pointing out the amazing mix. The sound here is immense, one of those rare albums that can sound old and new at the same time. The compositions are implicitly simple, so great effort has been placed in making them sound as effective and bludgeoning as possible. Yet there is a morbid grace at work, enabling the album to balance its few, black-pitched moments of tranquility (i.e. "Crematory"), which is worthy of a fine doom offering. On the whole, I enjoyed Deceased to Exist more than its predecessor, which plied a slightly narrower path. If there is any such thing as possible 'maturation' in retrospective Swedish death metal, Maim have undergone the process here. I can't promise that all the sounds you're hearing are remotely unique, but for what it is, the material is well written enough to sink its hooks into you and drag you back to familiar sepulchers yet again.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com