Ted Maul – White Label
Posted by douchemike on July 11th, 2008 filed in Death Metal
This is not a record for death metal purists, though not for the reasons you’d initially think. Despite being lumped in with the deathcore crowd, Ted Maul’s brand of death metal is simply strewn with chunky breakdowns the same way Grave, Obituary and Entombed’s material was. It seems a lot of folks don’t remember the much maligned breakdown was originally taken by the likes of Earth Crisis and Bloodlet from death metal itself. Where Ted Maul really goes off the beaten track is their fusion of Industrial and drum ‘n’ bass with death metal. They do for death metal what Aborym did for Black Metal and goddamn they do it with style!
The electronic elements range from the dark urban murkiness of underground drum ‘n’ bass to the intellectual electro extremeness of Aphex Twin, Squarepusher and any other artist you might find on Warp Records. The two genres mix seamlessly, with pulsating dance floor rhythms and screaming synths giving way to blastbeats and razor-sharp riffs and back again. Even when there are no electronica elements on the surface, there is a distinct rhythm and bouncy danceable groove that is unique in death metal and not seen elsewhere in metal except perhaps ‘Demanufacture’ by Fear Factory.
The death metal elements are taken from an extremely wide range with chaotic mathematical phrasings punctuating the frantic groove based approach that evokes Grave, Suffocation, and Vader to name but a few. The sinister grimy feel of Ted Maul’s collective heroes Akercocke pervades the whole proceeding but with less of an occult leaning and more of an emphasis of worldy evils with the powerful anti-war diatribe ‘For The Innocent’ rounding off what is an excellent example of 21st-century avant garde death metal.
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