Emanations from the Crypt

American death metal has never really been known for having too much in the ways of frills, lots of melody, and any remorse. It’s all business and no messing around, especially with Cleveland, Ohio’s Embalmer and their latest record entitled, Emanations From the Crypt. This is a band with a long history that includes death metal’s golden age of 1989 to about 1995, and this is their chance to prove to their fans and prospective fans what they are made of. Was this album of an amount of quality that astonished me? Not so much, but there is nothing here that really says, or this case, screams, that Emanations From the Crypt is truly horrible. No matter what one thinks of this record, they cannot ignore its aggression and energy.

There is a definite grindcore and brutal death metal edge to Emanations From the Crypt, with the album containing a ridiculous amount of blasting sections and the most dissonant collection of riffs that I have heard in a long time. There are a lot of riffs and structures straight out of the Cannibal Corpse playbook, with songs like “Botched” that remind me of “I Cum Blood” and the like. From one blast beat to the next, Drummer Roy Stewart just annihilates his kit with a relentless ferocity like that of a mad-man. Everyone else in the band follows suit with their frantic riffs that are strung together and complex. This strung together style has its downsides, such as the tendency for the riffs and melodies to be mixed right into each other, and therefore making them undecipherable. If I have to listen to the point in which I strain to hear the transfers of the melodies being played my listening experience goes down in quality.

I must admire the astute ferocity at which Embalmer plays at. Although poorly balanced and only by a few slower songs like “The Casket Calls” and “They Can Smell Our Blood,” the normal, blisteringly fast songs of Emanations From the Crypt are actually quite entertaining. They are the sort of songs that get can crowds whipped up into a moshing frenzy in a live setting and they are the definite tone-setter for this album. I just love the demented and deranged quality that wafts off of these songs. “The Coroners Report” is a perfect example of this with nothing but passages of riffs and rhythms that I doubt go under 200 bpm tempo. To be honest, this deranged quality isn’t lost on the slow songs either. “The Casket Calls” is much like that of a zombie rising up from its grave and staggering across the burial site with an insane grin on its face. No matter what song you listen to, you are going to get your share of madness.

I must be frank and say that although I love the mood of this record, I cannot take it in huge servings. I can only take so much of “Didn’t I just hear that riff in the last two songs already?” Much like the monotone groans of a zombie, this album often plays the same tune to a different name. And if somehow the riffs being played are actually different, then why make the listener’s job almost impossible in terms of discerning what is being played? This is mainly to blame on the production quality of the album, which doesn’t tailor well to the blasting passages (which there are many of). The sound of the bass guitar wasn’t really present throughout Emanations From the Crypt, and even though this kept the tremolo riffs from getting sludgy, there was no weight behind the waves of sound. It was mainly the drums over-powering everything, with the exception of screamer Paul Gorefiend.

Ultimately, I cannot recommend Emanations From the Crypt to people other than Embalmer fans or those of us who enjoy nothing but slamming brutal death metal songs that basically sound the same. There were a few tracks that provided some relief from the droning slams, but no more than that. Perhaps Embalmer is one of those groups that simply has run out of creative juice and is operating on fumes. Perhaps on the “Graveyard Fog?”