Band: VALGRIND
Country: Italy
Title: Seal of Phobos
Label: Everlasting Spew Records
Year: 2017
Style: Death Metal
Review:
Wow, this band is active since '93, so we're dealing here with a true veteran of the scene, although for my shame this is the first time I meet their music. Old-school Death Metal of US inspiration is the name of the game here, and Valgrind do it pretty well; I'm not that fond of the production here, to me the whole sounds pretty thin and abrasive, I would have liked an oppressive, dark sound for this music, but passing over this "inconvenient" I find the tracks really good, mostly because of those fantastic long guitar solos a la '90's Tampa Bay, and because of the overall pace and energy of Valgrind's music. There are some pretty good riffs featured here as well as some generic ones, the bass lines are fat and metallic as they should be, and the drumming is fast and brutal as fuck, with a sound quality to advantage them, these tracks would have produced serious damage, but in this form they are only good and that's it. Anyway, Valgrind is definitely an interesting band worth following, the mysterious, mystical outro of this EP promises things are not over and the worst is just yet to come... hopefully!
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7/10