Befouled - Refuse To Rot

Settin off on the right foot, these Norwegians intend to take your scalp early enough with their heavy sound. Once the play button is pushed, the creepy intro and the heavy old school riffing that follows kind of takes you back in the day. We're talking about Entombed-heavy sounding guitars n bass here. "Refuse To Rot" is their first full length released both on tape and cd from Great Dane Records, succeeding two eps and a single cd.

Ok Befouled are the type of band that hits you with an awesome prologue but then kind of stagnate. Not in all of their songs of course but to be dead honest, on most of them. After the intro, 'Refuse To Rot' breaks in with an awesome opening riff. Groovy and to the beat forcing you to headbang and go with their flow. Inspired from bands as Entombed, Necrophobic and early Grave. 'Wither Ways' carries on with the torch from were refuse to rot left it. Heavy sounding guitars and riffs giving away a 90s era of Swedish death metal. All the tracks follow the old school pattern. The riffs are sharp and thick accented by a bulldozer heavy bass guitar. Drums are mostly holding the whole thing together by executing the basic beats as they should. It's the nature of this particular genre that does not allow exaggerations and shit like that. Only well executed, typical, old school death metal beats that will shine through their simplicity.

The vocals follow the dual pattern of combining growls with shrieks. Not the best in da hood but still decent enough, adding points to the final outcome. And yet, I'm afraid that, while listening to it track by track it gets obvious that there is definitely an interesting aspect to each song, the entire hearing though, at some point got tiresome. Seemed like there was no breathing point. It all ended up sounding the same and I am sure this would be a lot different if the tracks had solos or lead themes in them. This genre is simple enough on its own and has the tendency to repeat its self when played for long. Lead themes in guitars and solos create breathing space and distract the listener's ear from any routine the main riffs tend to give. Personal aspect of course cos this is something that may differ from ear to ear.

And yet this factor alone is not able to make this a bad album. Quite the opposite. "Refuse To Rot" is a really good effort for a band's full length. Production helps a lot as it boosts the mid frequencies on top of the bass making the sound even itchier. Something fitting for their music. The artwork sums up their view for simplicity. A plain black scull over a totally red background. Check em out and see how much you can take ladies. Decent and honest old school death metal from the Norwegian war machine that might not be whatever best is around at the moment but gives out potential.

  1. Intro
  2. Refuse To Rot
  3. Wither Ways
  4. Pulverize
  5. Tales From The Tomb
  6. Chainsaw Rituals
  7. Feast On The Flesh
  8. Rest In Pieces
  9. Enter The Crypt
  10. Just Buried
  11. Torned Open
  12. Warpath


Reviewer: twansibon
Jun 13, 2018

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