Album Review: Deathroll - Into The Vortex
Reviewed by Paul Hutchings
Not to be confused with the Japanese black metal band of the same name, Deathroll is the combined brutality of drummer Kevin Talley (Dying Fetus, Misery Index, Six Feet Under, Suffocation), vocal powerhouse Diego Rojas, guitarist David Coloma and bassist Stephen Fernandez. An international studio project, Rojas and Coloma formed the outfit following their bond which dates to their youth over 20 years ago.
The three tracks on this short EP are blisteringly savage, fuelled by the extreme pain that Coloma channelled into the music after requiring surgery to repair a ruptured long intestine during the recording. As Coloma says, "The pain was sometimes so bad I could barely sit up, let alone hold my guitar. The whole situation made me angry, depressed, bitter. Every riff sounds like my insides being peeled apart because that's exactly what I was going through.”.
There may only be three tracks but the blisteringly thrash soaked riffs and building levelling blast beats on each track, ‘The Rise of Artificial Souls’, ‘Into The Vortex’ and ‘Visceral End’ are all wrapped and bound in a metaphorical barbed wire coating that cuts the flesh through an aural assault that is both relentless and unstoppable. Talley’s machine gun style drumming anchors the whole machine but it is the sum of the parts that is most impressive. A mere taste of things to come, Into The Vortex is a tasty appetiser to get the aural listening equipment twitching in anticipation.
