Usurpress - Trenches Of The Netherworld

Cover artwork by Rafal Kruszyk

Trenches Of The Netherworld, the debut full-length by Usurpress has been released on the Selfmadegod Records Bandcamp. Usurpress labels themselves D-beat deathcrust, a mix of old-school Swedisk death metal with a kind of metallic punk. The guitars have the right downtuned crunch, the vocals are as gruff as they come, and the bass tone is powerful and prominent. In fact the production is perfect for this stuff, raw but without losing any of the instruments in the mix. The drums really carries the mix of styles though, shifting from straightforward death metal pummeling to d-beat gallops that sometimes riffs harder than the guitars. On top of all this goodness, Usurpress adds their own little touches. As the esteemed Full Metal Attorney points out:

Distorted clean vocals show up for "Coronation of the Crippled King." Another clean-ish vocal style shouts the title phrase of "The Wooden Sceptre." Some kind of fiddle makes a prominent appearance during the intro to "Dethroned by Shadows," which might have seemed too out of place if they didn't blend it so well with the opening riff

Though clearly inspired by old-school swedeath, Usurpress covers more ground than similar bands. I don't think they deserve to be called 'retro', and I think you should check them out.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Usurpress bass player Daniel Ekeroth is also known as the author of "Swedish Death Metal". I assume he has a hand in running the Usurpress blog, where they recently posted an interesting interview with Selfmadegod Records boss Karol Pienko, about the hardships of running a DIY-label in 2012.