Deathchain - Deadmeat Disciples (2003)^{Release ID: 22728}

Finnish death/thrashers Deathchain are a welcome discovery via this month's review draft choices.  Featuring a couple of members who at one point in time were in Demilich (albeit one is still the live drummer), Deathchain like to always include the words 'dead' or 'death' in their album titles.  It is by no means their best quirk.  Instead I would simply draw attention to their raging death/thrash sound full of volcanic riffing and flesh-stripping vocals as being the biggest takeaway that I get from their debut release that I have somehow missed for the last twenty years.

Vocalist, Rotten (no longer with the band) has the perfect style for the death/thrash sub-genre.  Ranging from harsh and scathing to match those riffs through to a low, guttural gurn being applied when needed to mix things up.  Guitarists, Bobby Undertaker and Corpse (FFS) know their way along a fretboard and can fire in sonic leads as well as keep an intense riffing pattern going also.  Sometimes with death/thrash I find myself trapped in a melodic death metal space with lots of groove metal elements applied which really are not the boxes that I want ticking when I choose me some death/thrash metal.  Thankfully, there is none of that here as Deadmeat Disciples is bang on the money in terms of delivering exactly what they promise to.

Consistency is key on any album, and Deathchain almost fall foul of ending up as too consistent (almost folks, almost) as there are a couple of occasions where the album blends into familiar ground that has already been explored.  The short run time mitigates this though at just under thirty-three minutes.  My only real criticism is more to cry out the injustice of the mix on the drums.  Kassara is clearly a talent and you can hear the power in that stick work, however it is never really allowed to shine and always feels like the drums have been included as an afterthought.  Still a great discovery though and highly recommended to fans of The Crown and Legion of the Damned.