The saying goes that you shouldn't fix what ain't broke, and this could very well be the unstated motto of German death-thrash unit
Dew-Scented, who arrived at their seventh studio album, 2007's
Incinerate, as singularly obsessed with breaking heavy metal speed records as they were at the outset of their career. Up from the depths come the foreboding, surprisingly deliberate chords of the introductory "Exordium," but with the initial machine-gun salvo of first song proper "Vanish Away,"
Dew-Scented are once again off to the races, hardly pausing for breath until the slowly building dual-vocal experiment "Retain the Scars" brings listeners to a clearly "Seasons in the Abyss"-inspired finale some 40 minutes later and gives way to the bookending outro, "Exitus." As for the nine songs found in between, there are several excellent Bay Area-styled thrashers like "Final Warning," "The Fraud," and "Aftermath," which offer some of the best
Exodus tributes you'll ever hear, thanks to their crunchy riffs, whammy bar-driven solos, and spat-out vocal attacks. And when the slow-poke first halves of sonic black sheep like "Now or Never" and the Egyptian-sounding "Everything Undone" threaten to slow things down to suspiciously human thresholds, their vengeful second halves naturally remedy the situation with blastbeat explosions the likes of which most black metal bands would be envious of. In sum,
Dew-Scented are sticking to what they know best on
Incinerate, to the continued delight of their longtime supporters yet, undoubtedly, similar indifference from those who consider them one-trick ponies. But there are far worse tricks out there in the metal kingdom than this. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia