Slaughterday - Tyrants Of Doom
If you are not familiar with the arts and crafts of this German death metal machine, you are missing out. The 2-man project has been around since 2010 but their first release was a demo back in 2013 called 'Cosmic Horror'. Being signed to the legendary German label FDA Rekotz since their very first release, Slaughterday has stuck with them with every release (except the split with Phantom Corporation) which was released on a different label). The type of genre that Slaughterday has been playing since day one has been the more old school style of death metal. Now they've presented the world with their latest and 4th full length release 'Tyrants Of Doom'.
After the 2 year pause between 2020 and 2022, Slaughterday has not been sitting still. Having hired a new drummer in the form of the current Graveyard Ghoul (highly recommended) drummer Tom Hofmann for their live shows. Bernd Reiners (if my information is correct) is still the studio drummer and vocalist for Slaughterday as we speak with Jens Finger handling the string instruments in the band.
What really pops out of the first glance at the album is, ofcourse, the sublime artwork from Stefan Todorovic (Khaos Diktator Design). That is sure one of the best ones I've seen this year. Heading towards the music that Slaughterday is presenting us. If you know the music of Slaughterday, you know that they don't play the fast way of death metal but more the doom/death side of death metal. After the eerie intro, you will find yourself diving into the first real track 'Mauled'.
'Mauled' is one of those perfect 'Here we are *insert festival*' songs. A perfect headbangable riff is being presented straight from the back. It even has a chorus that is quite memorable after a few listens. Being an old school death metal band, Slaughterday will be quickly labeled as doom/death as they do tend to slow it down a lot. However, Slaughterday is an experienced band with more experienced band members so they know how to balance it out the right way.
What newer fans of Slaughterday might find out is that the voice of Bern really does clash with Peter (Piotr) from Vader. Of course this style is being practiced throughout the whole of the old school death metal scene but it is nice to have such a great comparison. At some points, Slaughterday does tend to push the pedal a bit more down but still manages to keep the groove in the death metal. Not overdoing it but perfectly balancing the fast and slower doom style of death metal. One of the songs where this is quite noticeable is the song 'Drown In Filth'. It has a very headbangable riff just after the middle section of the song which makes this my favorite song of 'Tyrants Of Doom'.
I tend to like the shorter songs a bit more because I think that is the way where Slaughterday excels more than the longer songs like 'Pestilent Tombs' and 'Grave Nihilist'. I am not saying that those songs are bad, absolutely not, it is just that I can not keep my attention with longer songs in old school death metal. For me they should be around the 3.30-4.00 mark. That should be ideal for me. We all know that Slaughterday can handle both the long tracks and shorter ones and that is the awesome thing about Slaughterday. If you look for both lengthy and shorter tracks, Slaughterday has you covered.
Overall, 'Tyrants Of Doom' is a well balanced old school death metal album which is rare these days. I will say that this is the case because of the experience Slaughterday has. Are you ready for a fat package of OSDM? Then you will love the new release of Slaughterday for sure.
