Putrified – Death Darkness Decay

Where to start with another release from Godz Ov War Productions? There’s no reason to repeat the history of this awesome Polish label, but some of our readers might need an introduction to a band going under the moniker of Putrified.

Thus, Putrified are a death metal trio from Stockholm, and Death Darkness Decay is their first full length, although they have been active since 2010 with two demos and two EPs under their belt. In the time of the recording of this six-tracker debut, the line-up consisted of; A. Death (vocals & instruments), Grave (backing vocals) and Crypt (backing vocals), while Dthmngr of Hatespawn (Ger) and Charon (Ger), H. Sulphur and N. Sadist of Patronymicon (Swe) made guest appearances.

Initial spin of Death Darkness Decay made me a bit confused, since I heard numerous influences and varied elements of everything from grindcore/hardcore, blast beats, sulphur doom atmosphere and furious solos; everything on just about 30 minutes of music!? Meanwhile, after second and even third spin, I started to enjoy all these various sounds. To be even more accurate, main patterns are still Swedish style melo-death, but at the same time, each song has this gloomy atmosphere, which is obviously more typical of genres such as black or doom metal. Musically, and lyrically, Death Darkness Decay seems as ‘divided’ into three parts, making a sort of a conceptual work out of individual tracks.

Production is gloomy, captivating, haunting, morbid and bone-chilling – setting the perfect mood for the lyrical and instrumentation of this record. The cover is equally evocative and anticipating the sulfurous atmosphere found within the album.

I I appreciate the fact that this Swedeish horde takes a rather unique approach to death meal. On Death Darkness Decay they deliver a powerful performance that’s a great foundation for a future releases from the band. I just hope that we don’t have to wait another 15 years before a follow-up to Death Darkness Decay gets released.

In conclusion; Death Darkness Decay is definitely worth a listening, esp. recommended for fans of Obituary, Emperor, Repugnant, Dead Congregation and similar acts.

Listen to an advanced track from Death Darkness Decay on Bandcamp here, or via YouTube below.