Band's List Death Metal Debt Of Nature Crush, Kill and Burn

Freud once wrote something to the effect of; "you owe your life to your mother and you owe your death to nature". Primitive tribes in the Eastern Himalayas have a long tradition of placing their dead bodies out for the wild dogs to devour. Certain Native American tribes used to set their deceased on top of wooden frames, for predatory birds to feast upon. So now you can get an idea of the misanthropic direction that this German Death Metal band is moving towards.

This is their 3rd effort, following a demo, and an EP. I couldn't find their 2 earlier releases anywhere, to compare them to this album, but I did buy it from I-Tunes. The album art depicts a woman walking down a city street, where the buildings to her right side are engulfed in flames, while the buildings to her left side are in tact. As you look closer at the woman, you can see that her right arm (on the same side as the fire) appears as skeletal bone, while her left arm looks normal. She's wearing a red dress , that is raised up at the front to reveal that her right leg (same side as the fire) looks like the leg of a skeleton. So I interpret this artwork to symbolize a prostitute who has got one foot in hell.

The crushing music from the rhythm section play together as tightly as the jaws of a locked up bench vise. Bassist Stavro Kamari exerts a mix of clumsy punk attacks and hard driving riffs, that he plays at a swift paced frenzy. He sets the pace for the guitarists. Kevin Siepmann beats the shit out of his drum set, with pounding blast beats, and typewriter fast outbursts from his bass drums. He displays constant percussive rhythm and his expertise shines throughout the album.

The almost killer vocals on this album come from a tandem of grim growlers. Of Course they've still got Marc Gohring. But they've recently hired Masae Dausend, who's a female. I wouldn't have guessed that there were female vocals on this album, just by hearing it. I read about it in their information capsule. They both scream and growl with a slightly jocular style, like Kevin McClintock of Polterchrist. It's also difficult to distinguish the difference between the 2 vocalists. I reckon that she could individualize her vocals with a "bad girl" persona and possibly a gimmick. The band could make a lot of money and build up a reputation, if she would shoot fire out of her mouth. Like Gene Simmons did with Kiss.

The intensity of the guitars burn like the smoldering embers after a mesquite cookout, where someone throws in a handful of kindling every so often for some short lived flashes of fire. The guitarists weave and wind around the rhythm section with quirky punk hooks and mild hard core styled riffs. They ought to bring up the intensity, as though someone threw a dried up branch into the fire, so that the flames could shoot up high with a scorching intensity to amaze their listeners. The solos also need to be longer, sort of like what Larry Lalonde did with Possessed. They need guitar leads that lead with an iron fist, instead of just following the rhythm section.

What this boils down to is Death Metal steeped into Punk influences. The music sounds very reminiscent of Polterchrist. It's fast and awkward, with a frivolous mood. The album is good, but not great. It's one of those albums that you'll probably listen to for about a month and then maybe return to it about a year later. These songs sound like they could have been performed by 3 band members. But Debt Of Nature has 6 members. They've got 2 vocalists who sound alike and they've got 2 guitarists playing a support role. The extra vocalist and guitarist seem very superfluous for this production.

There is no shortage of bands who play a style like this. So their approach could use a "make over". They've got a lot of help, with 6 band members, so they need to fully exploit all of their collective talents. First of all, having Masae Dausend on grim vocals is a waste of her feminine presence. She should sing clearly and yell hysterically, like an angry bitch who wants to castrate you. Vocalist Marc Gohring should drop the jocular style and growl his lines with a darker attitude, like Brian Cook did with Vicious Circle. The desired effect would be to make the listener feel like he is trapped between the evils of the 2 different vocalists, with nowhere to run, and forced to pay his Debt Of Nature.