ALBUM REVIEW: Dyscarnate - "With All Their Might"

By: Richard Maw

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 15/09/2019

Label: Unique Leader Records

For those death metal fans expecting endless blasting, look elsewhere. For those who want a pit destroying festival of riffs: look no further. This is Dyscarnate’s best album so far and a real beast of modern death metal.

“With All Their Might” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Of Mice And Mountains
2. This Is Fire!
3. Iron Strengthens Iron
4. Traitors In The Palace
5. To End All Flesh Before Me
6. Backbreaker
7. All The Devils Are Here
8. Nothing Seems Right

The Review:

Horsham's finest death metal act... Actually, due to line up changes and band members relocating elsewhere: make that the UK's finest death metal act return here with their third full length release. Previous albums “Enduring The Massacre” and “And So It Came To Pass” were slick and powerful beasts which utilised state of the art production and first class musicianship to make this trio sound like an army marching through the speakers.

The band continues their upward trajectory here with yet another improvement on their sound in terms of song writing, production and playing. Opener “Of Mice And Mountains” is simply immense. The heaviness reached here is staggering, as it is on “This Is Fire!” The quality of playing and production would just have been unthinkable a few years ago for an underground band. Henry Bates may have departed his bass and vocals role in 2015, but the band has found the right man in Al Llewellyn to replace him. As a unit the band work incredibly well- even if there is no doubt that music like this is recorded piecemeal and by making full use of digital technology these days. Gone are the days of Scott Burns running a reel to reel and maybe using a trigger on the snare drum, but that approach could never capture what we can hear on this muscularly impressive record.

Material wise, this is not as brutal as “Enduring The Massacre”- in terms of out and out speed and aural savagery- but it is heavier. The riffs are weightier, the sound is bigger and the band deadlier. “Iron Strengthens Iron” will be familiar to those of you have been looking out for preview album tracks- and it is a kind of catchy “single” (please don't mistake this for an actual catchy pop tune- I am talking catchy like “Heartwork”or “Where The Slime Live”, not American Idiot).

The heavy atmosphere and weight of riffage continues with “Traitors In The Palace”, but the pace picks up on “To End All Flesh Before Me”- even if the tempos remain slower than you might expect from the band's earlier records. These tracks are a great example of Dyscarnate spreading their wings a little and experimenting with more Sabbathian tempos- even if they retain the double kick and quick pick straits of death metal. The pit slamming approach continues on “Backbreaker”while “All The Devils Are Here” is head-banging nirvana.

At eight tracks, this record is the perfect length; it has enough to leave you wanting more and has great depth to the tracks on offer. The epic closer “Nothing Seems Right” caps off the album in unusual and wing spreading style. There are things on the album which would not have appeared on their previous two albums- different atmospheres, lyrical themes of existential angst, will to power and so on.

For those of you expecting endless blasting, look elsewhere. For those who want a pit destroying festival of riffs: look no further. Their best album so far and a real beast of modern death metal.

“With All Their Might”is available to preorder/buy here

Band info: facebook