Last year’s Nightmare Vortex served as a solid, yet familiar introduction to Slaughterday. Their take on old school death metal, mostly of the Swedish variety, by way of Germany held together better than most. They’ve quickly come up with a follow-up EP, entitled Ravenous, which attempts to further their stake in the crowded old school death metal crowd.
Comprised of only 4 songs, Ravenous is quite a tease. Sonically, the three original tracks (the fourth is a cover of Acheron’s “Ave Satanas”) have done what many bands in this genre decide not to do: start formulating their own sound. Granted, this is firmly in the middle of the burgeoning old school death metal field, but they’ve wisely decided that ripping off of Entombed and Dismember’s greatest hits is not the best way to get noticed and they do a surprisingly good job of tossing in some other tidbits to push them away from that direction. Even the production aids with this, pushing a clearer sound without sounding too polished or too “Swedish.” They carefully balance tempos as well, going from a heavy, riff-centered crawl to top speed, stopping to hit everything else in between as well. Coupled with a tendency to toss in some otherwise melodic solos and riffs, Slaughterday does a good job of covering all their bases and then some.
The only thing that really hinders Ravenous is its size alone. It sits up with some of the strongest retro-death releases of 2014 (alongside Vanhelgd and Gluttony) but the EP length is just too small a sample. A nice step up from Nightmare Vortex, Slaughterday seem primed and ready to move up the death metal ladder with their next full length. May it come soon!