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Requiem: Government denies knowledge
11/07/11 || Habakuk
Switzerland hasn’t just brought us Celtic Frost, cheese and neutrality, in recent years they seem to have worked on their death metal output as well. At least that’s the impression I get when listening to this album. Something I’ve been doing for quite some time now, considering I bought it around the time it came out – that’s 5 years ago already. Now the fuck metal dinosaurs among you will agree with me in my hesitation to speak of “long-term listening value” here, but let’s say the mid-term qualities are something we can debate. Granted, starting an album off with a George W. Bush quote is more than dated, but the fact alone that I still bother to bring “Government denies knowledge” up after 5 years has probably already told you that it can’t be all that terrible.
Right you are. In fact it’s pretty damn good – because we all know what makes death metal great, it’s three things: Rhythm, rhythm and rhythm. Fuck all your Amon Amarthian attempts at epicness and glorious melody, at the end of the day, what I crave from a death metal record is repeated and rhythmic kicks in the gut, and Requiem deliver in spades. It seems the drummer has either been a rather active part of the songwriting process, or he’s simply very apt at enhancing the guitar tracks with lots of little treats. Many albums that attempt to be straightforward and blunt just get lost in the beat, with the guitars rambling their supposedly stellar riffs over a more and more stale drumming base which simply fills the spot by hitting as many drum heads as possible in a given song duration. Not so here, and while the guitar work is certainly above average (and sports a nasty, sawing tone), it’s the drums that really raise the bar. Blessed with a maybe not very natural, but pretty effective and punchy sound, Mr Crola on drums doesn’t have to shy away from the likes of Dave Culross. Yep, fans of Malevolent Creation, sharpen your pencils and take notes if you haven’t started yet. This shall be to your liking. Blast-heavy but never overloaded, groovy but never too slow, stripped-down but not dumb, Requiem’s music puts a lot of Florida’s recent death metal works to shame.
It’s all topped off with a raspy shouter who definitely lends a bit more personality to the band’s sound than any given low grunter, but doesn’t distract from the important stuff at all. Song highlights to point out are the pummeling “Signal zero”, which nods towards Bolt Thrower not only by being war-themed, as well as the plethora of awesome moments of riff-focused groove that fills this album: “Two sides within”, “Extinct by Evolution”, “Bloodcult”, “Setting the score” to name a few song examples.
In a nutshell, if you like your death metal blunt, relentless and to the point, this album is one to go for.
- Information
- Released: 2006
- Label: Massacre Records
- Website: www.requiem-net.com
- Band
- Michal Kuster: vocals
- Ralph Inderbitzin: guitars
- Phil Klauser: guitars
- Ralf Winzer: bass
- Reto Crola: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Government denies knowledge
- 02. Extinct by evolution
- 03. Inconsistent consequences
- 04. Bloodcult
- 05. Signal zero
- 06. Sonderkommando 12
- 07. Diary of a damaged brain
- 08. Supremacy
- 09. Setting the score
- 10. Two sides within
