Without the drama that saddled their previous Poisoned Legacyrelease (singer
Toke Eld was unable to participate due to troubles with the law), Denmark’s The Cleansing lay down a familiar, but staunch slab of brutal and modern death metal on Feeding the Inevitable. With a thread of Floridian death metal being the most prominent, the Danes manage to find the necessary elements of groove and sizzle that allow such albums to prop themselves up. If that wasn’t the case, then it would be as generic as any Malevolent Creation album.
Speed is the name of the game when opener “The Promethean Promise” kicks things off, as a flurry of triplets and chunky, Cannibal Corpse-inspired riff-action keeps the song moving. Same bodes for “Third Eye Staring,” which shifts into tempos not too dissimilar from Decapitated. No trace of melody to be found, although that doesn’t hinder the punchy “A Cheating Progression” and brutish “Two Days.”
Eld is a rather typical death metal vocalist, meaning he does his best to sound like he has cookies crammed in his mouth (hopefully of the chocolate chip variety), although he manages to not ruin album standout “Processed For Contamination,” the only song here that manages to dip into the melody pool. Indeed “Processed” creates a Fourth Dimension-era Hypocrisy feel, heightened by some eerie melodies and a slow-build throughout that perfectly offsets the album’s mostly fast pace.
With an approach that will hardly split the world in two, The Cleansing manage to figure out that in order for brutal death metal to work without the trimmings, a song-first mindset is the way to. And that’s why Feeding the Inevitable will stay out of the bottom-feeding brutal death metal cesspool…and hopefully Eld will stay away from the grips of John Law.
www.myspace.com/thecleansingnet
(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)