Makeshift Altars

       Back at the end of August, Massacre Records quietly released a new record from old school death metal aficionados Voracious Scourge - hailing from Baton Rouge and formed from members and ex-members of many famous groups from throughout extreme metal history, the hellish imagery on the album's cover - which no doubt would look stellar on a record sleeve - is entirely reflective of the music contained within. From Voracious Scourge's Bandcamp: 'Old school death metal project formed by Jason McIntyre. The love of late 80's and early 90's death metal fuels the writing behind the project. VS h e arkens back to the good old days when creating great songs with solid riffs and vocal hooks that grabbed you and stuck in your brain like mental meat hooks, was the mission.' Consider me meat-hooked, lads. In Death is their first full-length after a compilation release and an EP previously, and opens with horror game pastiche, droning synths and ominous choir sounds pu

          So, I'm not quite the biggest fan of the recent old school death metal revival. The entire movement to me feels like a sailed ship; then the ship sank and is at the bottom of the ocean, and all these bands are still trying desperately to eek out a little more fresh oxygen from within the hold. They've all been doing the same thing for decades, with derivation upon derivation of being waterlogged in the old school culture and image, never cutting above the water. It's refreshing to see bands who poke their head above the surface and squeeze a little more life out of a dying art. They are merely few and far between. Almost none of them have managed to realize OSDM needs an all-out rescue mission, with Horrendous as a notable exception.     Now here we have a band sticking their head above the rest, clawing their way into relevance with a release the tows the line between the old school and new school so deftly that, in a void, it seems to break those distinctions do