Sewercide – Immortalized In Suffering

Just by glancing at the artwork above, your mind should already race to Finland. And though Sewercide hails from Australia, they really have little in common with their bestial brothers. Indeed, everything about this release screams old-school Finnish death metal. Bands like Demilich, Adramelech, and Convulse come to mind as appropriate comparisons, as Sewercide looks to these groups for the majority of their inspiration.

This means that “Immortalized In Suffering” is a brutal offering of death metal, featuring twisted melodies and riffs that will make your head spin. Neither pinch harmonics nor blast beats are in short supply on this record, with Sewercide using both to perfection time and time again. Unsurprisingly, the production is cryptic and dark, making for a somewhat fuzzy-sounding guitar tone (particularly for tremolo-picked riffs). Though the band makes use of chunkier, muted rhythms, they don’t quite work as well with this tone as they would with a meatier one. Nevertheless, it would be fair to say that everything Sewercide does on “Immortalized In Suffering” is effective. Even the bass playing is pretty on point, both when it takes the lead for the occasional brief moment, or when it continues to rumble away underneath the carnage the rest of the band is unleashing.

Of course, the songwriting itself is somewhat limited. There isn’t a ton of variety (aside from the amazingly named “Interlude In Agony”), nor does this album consist of numerous memorable moments. This is not the true aim of this style, so it isn’t particularly burdensome for Sewercide. Instead, they continue to pound away for 8 full tracks, unleashing every trick in the Finnish death metal book. There are also occasional nods to bands that share some similarities, including but not limited to Immolation, Incantation, and much of the Swedish death metal scene. Regardless though, Finnish death metal is the prevailing influence. 

Despite all of these positives, the album falls short for me. Though I’m not particularly familiar with their back catalogue, the promises of Demolition Hammer-esque thrash on their previous release definitely sounds like an upgrade to me. This is purely a matter of personal preference, but I’d take thrash metal over death metal every time, so while Sewercide themselves cannot be faulted, this album doesn’t quite fulfill my expectations.

Be sure to check out and like Sewercide on Facebook!

Highlights

All/none

Final Rating

3.7/5 or 74%. 

Written by Scott