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Asphyx > Embrace the Death > Reviews
Asphyx - Embrace the Death

The perfect debut that never was a debut - 99%

marc1978, December 19th, 2021

I am not going to do a song-by-song review so here goes why I love this album.

The album which 'would' have been the official Asphyx debut album in the rare line-up featuring Daniels & Loomans but without Brookuis. Can someone tell me why Brookhuis wasn't part of this album?

The album was recorded in 1990 for release on the British C.M.F.T. record label (who had released stuff by Tiamat and Brutal Obscenity earlier) but during the recording the label seized to exist. As drummer Bagchus said in an interview "we found out that CMFT was no longer! But we were in the middle of the recordings and we didn’t tell the studio owner. Since the label ceased to exist we didn’t have the time to mix the album so we asked the studio owner if he could tape the still unmixed album for us. He taped it for us, we went home as quickly as possible and we never went back to mix it properly."

And then it some years later it was released in 1996 by Century Media when Asphyx itself had already fallen apart into two different incarnations (one Daniels-led and the other featuring Bagchus). So the raw and hastily 'mixed' version of those 1990 recordings finally saw the light of day.

Asphyx is mostly remembered now as that band with van Drunnen, with his sick grunt. But before 1991 there was no such thing. Van Drunen was still in Pestilence and Asphyx had Loomans. Loomans is an entirely different kind of grunter. He is not 'sick' at all in that van Drunen/Tardy/Reifert way. Loomans can best be described as 'dark & evil'. Especially parts with added reverb on his vocals are so damn evil!

And that is the vibe of this album. The 'Evil' brother compared to the more 'raunchy' The Rack from 1991. A few songs from this album also made it on The Rack but I have heard some lyrics were actually changed due to van Drunen not wanting to sing overtly satanic stuff.

Why do I love this album so much? Firstly because I love this more 'evil' Asphyx and secondly because this came from an era when I find death metal to be the most fun. The majority of bands were still underground and all sounded different! Productional values were all over the place, going from 'non-existent' to 'pretty good' and labels didn't yet make all artists go to the same studios to record with either Colin Richardson, Scott Burns or Tomas Skogsberg.

This album to me is another indication of how cool those early days of death metal actually were

The choking that might have been - 63%

autothrall, January 7th, 2014

The mid-to-late 90s were marred with a series of Asphyx breakups and reunions that resulted in a number of iterations of the lineup, with essentially different original members giving the death metal a go. For example, the eponymous record was Eric Daniel's stab at a new roster, and God Cries was a Bob Bagchus-led effort which involved the earlier front man Theo Loomans. The same year the latter was released, 1996, they also put out Embrace the Death, which was one of those deals where a bunch of older recordings that essentially might have been their debut album in an alternate timeline finally sees the light, and this is more of less the continuity of that Mutilating Process EP I covered a while back. In fact it encompasses that material and a number of others tunes that would be 'redundant' with other releases, like "Crush the Cenotaph", but if you wanted a chance to hear what Asphyx might have sounded like without acquiring van Drunen and Ron van Pol, eat your heart out.

The Dutchmen already had a pretty grotesque vocalist in Loomans, and might never have needed them if he had continued on through the 90s, and Embrace the Death covers a pretty broad range of material from the chuggier death metal to some death/doom and even borderline grind bits. The guitars here are a bit more raw and unrefined than a number of the other 'official' studio records, but I have to say there is probably just as much if not meat on the tone here than anything else they'd done to this point. The riffs are largely the same, but cases could be made for a few of the tunes like "The Sickened Dwell" sounding superior to their Rack incarnations, if only because they seem more morbidly fat, with the leads disappearing into the overbearing walls of heavy. Bob's drums are audible but a little tinny against the corpulent rhythm guitars, and the bass just seems to service the bottom end contours of the riffing, but Embrace the Death is indisputably some dark sounding shit, most worth it to fans of groups Autopsy and Obituary who also 'embraced' some a twisted approach vector to the genre, borne on ugliness and crushing brutality more than technique. Now, don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of throwaway grooves or chord progressions here which don't generate a lot of compulsion in me compared to much of the death or death/doom I'd already experienced in 1996 (even accounting for its original 90/91 target date), but it smacks of that crude authenticity you feel when you experience an old death metal demo from the period.

The good news for fans and collectors is that there were some tunes exclusive to this recording which haven't seen release elsewhere (at least not in this particular form), like the 5 and a half minute death/doom slog "Circle of the Secluded" which is naturally slow and barbaric but has a few dour melodies to break up the atmosphere; or "To Succubus a Whore", a pretty brief tune which cycles through some measured blast beats over what sounds like one of the faster old Obituary tunes, then busts into this groove which reminds me a lot of a Candlemass tune if reinforced with a gallon of sewage and ugly gutturals. The Mutilating Process EP is also tucked in there at the end for some value. Granted, my preference remains with van Drunen over Loomans, though this guy makes a decent alternative for him, or Reifert, or Tardy, I just don't think he has that same level of sickness inherent to his performance. There's almost no versatility to the growls, though one could argue the same on certain songs that those other guys have performed on. Musically, the writing of these obscure tracks is no better than The Rack, somewhat predictable riffing patterns that rely a lot more on heaviness than creativity, though to be fair, they're a lot more generic when bands in the 21st century use them, which happens a lot more than you'd expect! At least in '89-'90 it still felt like fresh dirt. Anyway, not a waste of money if you love Autopsy or Cianide or have to own all the Asphyx material, but I was a little more curious about what the Bagchus/Loomans revival of the band would produce next.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Obscure and morbid death metal cult - 89%

dismember_marcin, July 27th, 2011

I think that everybody knows the weird story behind "Embrace the Death" album, if not let me remind you it. Initially recorded in 1990, it wasn't released on CD until 1996 (LP in 2009!), because the guy (from CMFT Records), who was about to release it originally, has disappeared with all the studio money, before the band even finished the recordings. As Bob Bagchus wrote in the booklet for the vinyl: "we found out about it when we were still in the studio (1990) a few days before mixing! We just recorded the album and only did a rough mix on "Streams of Ancient Wisdom"... we were in the studio and without a label to pay for all! So we took off with only a cassette tape with an intro, outro, a rough mix of "Streams of..." and with some movie samples in "Denying the Goat" and choir in "Vault of the vailing Souls" and that was it!". Sounds weird, but the most important thing is that this album hasn't vanished and Asphyx managed to release it finally, even if it took them few years to do so.

Another important thing about "Embrace the Death" is that major part of it was later re-recorded and re-arranged on future Asphyx albums, like the title song, which appeared on "The Rack" LP as "Pages In Blood", "Denying the Goat" as "Diabolical Existence", etc., while "Streams of Ancient Wisdom" was recorded for "Last One On Earth" LP. As far as I know some of the old lyrics of these songs have been rewritten for "The Rack" album, as new vocalist Martin van Drunen didn't like their occult matters and decided to write his own texts. Some of these original, old lyrics that Theo wrote for "Embrace the Death" album have been lost.

I must say "Embrace the Death" is the most evil and obscure sounding Asphyx album. It sounds almost like a demo, with this awfully unpolished and rough production, but that only gives and extra feeling to already damn dark and heavy album. Skipping the intro, it begins with "Embrace the Death", one of the best songs Asphyx ever written, it just blows my mind and that mournful melody in the opening part is one of the best ever to come up in death metal history. When listening to this song and also those, which follow, like "The Sickened Dwell" or "Streams of Ancient Wisdom" it surprises me how brutal and extreme you could sound, without playing mercifully fast. Much of the Asphyx music is slow, in the vein of death / doom metal, but notice how heavy and obscure it is... Like "The Sickened Dwell"; it's opened by mid paced riff, but then there's this sloooow part, which just kills and it still amazes me how well it all sounds. Or "Denying the Goat", which is all about the slowly crawling riffage (from hell).

Bur for instance, "Thoughts of an Atheist" is slightly faster, although it also starts with doomy part, but then it develops into one of the fastest songs on the album. Or "To Succubus a Whore" - fuckin fast song (in the archaic death metal standards of corpse)... So, as a whole "Embrace the Death" is much more varied than you may imagine and that's another great thing about that album, as thanks to it the atmosphere, even if sometimes the production fails, is truly one of the darkest and most morbid you'll witness on death metal album and there's no doubt about that.

Sadly "Embrace the Death" is along with "God Cries" the only album that features Theo Loomans on vocals. The guy did fantastic job here, his voice is vomited in furious way, impressively brutal and rough, and so is his bass. Sometimes his vocal arrangements are bit doggy, like in "Thoughts of an Atheist", which is a bit faster song and maybe that faster tempo is the reason why his vocal parts seem not be perfected in this particular song. I think he felt better, more comfortable in these slower tracks like "Crush the Cenotaph". I also love the leads that Eric Daniels plays. They're all fantastic, but especially the ones in "Streams of Ancient Wisdom" and "Circle of the Secluded" are emotional and memorable. The guy rips!

Summing it up, "Embrace the Death" is amazing album. Despite its troubles and even some weaknesses, I can only be grateful to Century Media for exhuming it in 1996 and recently also From Beyond Productions for releasing this ultra limited vinyl. It was worth doing so. I realise it isn't the most technical or perfectly recorded album, but that's not the point here. Asphyx delivered some great, memorable songs here, some classic and cult riffs and for all that "Embrace the Death" deserves its place in the history of death metal. Yeah, classic it is.

Best songs: "Embrace the Death", "The Sickened Dwell", "Crush the Cenotaph"

Asphyx - Embrace the Death - 92%

Unsilent_Storms, October 10th, 2006

Embrace the Death has quite a bit of history behind it. Originally recorded in the time period between 1989 and 1990, it was intended to be Asphyx debut album, recorded in what many consider to be the most evil and occult period of Asphyx, this album captures just that, a tortured sound, a raw hybrid of doom and death metal. Just as the album was to see the light of day, the label folded and this ode to darkness and death/doom metal lay dormant in some basement, doomed to never see the light of day.(get it? Doomed?) Asphyx would go on to record other albums that would gain them international recognition, even getting death metal superstar vocalist Martin Van Drunen (Pestilence, Comecon) to join for a few albums, this album meanwhile saw the light of day years later, showcasing a raw brutality of a time long gone.

The album features the mystic Theo Loomans handling the vocals, a brutality that must be heard to fully understand and believe. Theo (R.I.P.), spews diabolical and dark lyrics with a hatred that can be felt throughout the entire album, truly adding to the simply yet effective guitar riffs that throughout the album change from doom to death and vice versa. The slower doom parts are atmospheric like, and set up the harsher death metal pounding which it intertwines with brilliantly.

On “Embrace the Death” we find many songs that appear on both earlier and later Asphyx albums. “Thoughts of an Atheist” is present here but without the soft guitar intro present on the version found on the “Crush the Cenotaph” demo. This version sounds much cleaner and does the song justice. “The Sickened Dwell”, can be found with Martin Van Drunen on vocals in “The Rack” album. “Streams of Ancient Wisdom” can be found in both the legendary “Mutilating Process” ep and again on the “Last One on Earth” album. “Crush the Cenotaph” is another song found on various Asphyx releases, the crowd favorite “Evocation” found on “The Rack” album and live on the “Crush the Cenotaph” ep is found here but under its original name “Circle of the Secluded”, similarly “To succubus a Whore” is the original name for the song “Wasteland of Terror” found on “The Rack”

The difference between the versions on Embrace the Death to the ones on the other albums is mainly that this album captures Asphyx at its most primitive, the way im sure the band would want people in general to remember them by. Totally uninfluenced by anything but there love for the dark side of life and occultism, “Embrace the Death” must be one of the most haunting satanic albums ever recorded. It is worth picking up just for the fact that you get to hear Theo Loomans spew his hatred unto humanity with his amazingly barbaric voice, and see the original renditions of Asphyx classics, the way they were meant to be heard.