ALBUM REVIEW: S.U.T.U.R.E. – War Inside
WORDS: Jessica Howkins
Hailing from Nantes – France, WAR INSIDE have been climbing up the ladder for one of the best new brutal death metal bands after having only formed in 2008 and already getting the chance to play Hellfest Open Air in 2013, just a year before their debut album, Welcoming The Crow, and playing alongside bands such as BELPHEGOR and SEVERE TORTURE. Now with their latest record, S.U.T.U.R.E., they are ready to really deliver some of the finest death metal.
When the first track from S.U.T.U.R.E., Demiurge, kicks in, it almost resembles that of a mid-2000 SUICIDE SILENCE sound. It’s heavy and it oozes with brutality and sheer force, it’s no doubt that straight away this will be one album to give anybody a sore neck. Demiurge may be leaning more towards the death metal side of their sound but it is noticeable that you will hear the black metal influences that will soon take over the rest of the album. It’s exciting to hear two brutal genres come together so flawlessly the way that WAR INSIDE have done.
Leading into The Milgram Whore, this track is certainly the side that shows just how much influence black metal has had over the band. It reeks of darkness and it’s a track that makes you feel things that sort of scare you a little bit. It has a slight tinge of an older BEHEMOTH or WATAIN to it, especially as it leads into the bridge, WAR INSIDE bring out the melodic death metal to really infuse the two genres together and it just works.
As the album carries on into tracks Body Bones, Name Us Defective and Penance, WAR INSIDE have been able to keep their flow of mixing the two brutal genres together with great elegance, something very difficult to get just right. With Penance, it is something just that little bit smoother to everything else on the album.
Penance is a lot more instrumental than the rest of the tracks on the album, minus some dubbed over recordings of speaking, but that doesn’t make it any less than any of the other tracks on the album, in fact it adds a sense of creepiness to it, it’s eerie but it’s got something very enchanting about how it is executed, the only downside to the track is that its placement on the album should have potentially been left for the outro.
Despite this, it leaves no room for error as the next track, Cold as Dead, kicks in. It emphasises the progression from the start of the album up until now and it shows just how darker and heavier the music really has become, almost taking you on a journey.
This no doubt carries on throughout the rest of the album, leaving absolutely no room for slowing down. From start to finish S.U.T.U.R.E. has been a journey of brutality, of force and of some dark power that just leaves you craving more. WAR INSIDE have a talent of infusing two of the heaviest genres in metal together without leaving room for error, something that is, as said previously, very difficult to do. If you want fast dark riffs, if you want the sound of a double bass drum going at a ridiculous speed down your ear, metal bass tones with a hint of funk and some of the dirtiest vocals you could ever want, then WAR INSIDE are the band and S.U.T.U.R.E. is the album just for it.
It is a stunning piece of art, the band have crafted their technical skills and their ability to perform to such a high standard absolutely spot on and there is no doubt that they will ever stop being one of the freshest new bands that deliver some real filth.
Rating: 9/10
S.U.T.U.R.E is out now via Finisterian Death End.
