Album Review : Make Them Die Slowly - Ferox (2020)
Extreme metal and horror movies have a lengthy and not-so-glorious history together. Popularized by the immortal Cannibal Corpse, horror references and imagery have since been reappropriated for mostly poop jokes, misogynistic statements and song intros for shitty slam bands. There’s so much more to it than screaming girls and dismemberment. No one’s properly merged the two together yet. No one until… Make Them Die Slowly, a mysterious side project by members of Anaal Nathrakh and Fukpig who graced the internet with their first release Ferox, last week.
This album both feels oddly familiar and wildly new at the same time.
Ferox opens with an intro called Profonde Tenebre, which sets the peculiar and exciting tone for what’s to come. There’s a keyboard theme; the glitchy, distorted voice of a classic horror host and a wall of guitar that follows the theme’s melody and eases the intro into the first single Murder Night. It would’ve been corny if it was so well played. The host’s voice is so battered and deformed, it sounds like an old VHS tape running in a barren torture basement somewhere. The music is so clean and well-produced in comparison, it’s like they don’t belong together. It completely fucks with your expectations.
The band transitions into Murder Night, the most Anaal Nathrakh-like song on Ferox. It’s a very straightforward (yet intoxicating) mix of grindcore and black metal, which fans are used to by now. The new and exciting stuff starts with the third song Demoni, which uses a moody piano sequence for melodic backdrop. That’s what I mean when I said earlier “properly merging horror and extreme metal”. Mick Kenney (well, I guess it’s Mick Kenney) has properly weaved horror soundtracks into the composition of the song. It’s not just an accessory to enhance the atmosphere.
I’ve never heard melody so cleverly and purposefully crafted into such extreme songs. That is new and exciting to me.
Songs like The Mutilator and Of Jackal and Demon Born (personal favorite of mine) also have that structure. The latter has a freakin’ Satanic choir for melodic backdrop. How freakin’ awesome is that? The Nights of Terror and Eaten Alive! follow similar structural rules without committing as hard on the over-the-top merging of genres. They’re more straighforward grindcore songs with intense breakdowns and everything, but find ways to integrate melody that don’t sound corny or pretentious. These guys are trying stuff with a very precise purpose in mind. It’s a breath of fresh air in close-minded metal circles.
One thing I liked a little less is that Ferox is sometimes too close to Anaal Nathrakh. Songs that don’t embrace the same wild experimentation like Murder Night or The Bastards Have Landed kind of sound like Nathrakh light (from different eras, mind you) and this music is so emotionally intense, I’d rather listen to Codex Necro or Vanitas than Ferox when I want to feel that way. Pieces had the brilliant idea of merging chainsaw sounds with guitar, but the end result doesn’t quite work. It feels weird to say, but it could’ve used more chainsaw to better establish the parallel.
I really liked Ferox. I’m not ready to call Make Them Die Slowly genuises yet, but they have something to work with here. Ferox lays out a creative canvas that lends itself to all sorts of balls out experimentation. Whether they decide to follow it up or another band decides to pick up on the idea, this new kind of horror grind has infinite potential. If anything, it riled me up for the new Anaal Nathrakh album coming this fall. Ferox is a solid album. It’s wild, extreme and creative in the best possible way.
7.7/10
