Album Review: Casket Feeder - Servants Of Violence
Reviewed by Daniel Phipps
Hailing from the UK’s capital city of roundabouts, Milton Keynes is Casket Feeder. The Bedfordshire five piece following the release of two EP’s are self-releasing their debut full length Servants of Violence, in which the band combine their HM2 fused death metal approach with heavy metallic hardcore. It’s quite difficult to properly categorise where Casket Feeder sit within these scenes, they fall sound wise right in the middle without touching on the horrid deathcore sound which has started to gain popularity again. What they provide can only be described as if Entombed are having a scrap with Stampin’ Ground.
Servants of Violence is built the foundations of the guitars which has a very savage tone, this takes centre stage right from the start of the record. The buzzing chainsaw like sound is direct and straight into your face as the riffs on this record just batter through each track be it some of the more up tempo sections or churning slower riffs the guitars suitably pummel you. The outstanding mix of the styles mentioned in the opening paragraph are found throughout each track, as they are filled with pure shredding which makes way onto savage groove sections and cracking moshy breakdowns.
Everything through this record has been crafted excellently in which the transitions are seamless and do not fall out of place. Vocally Servants of Violence is an intense affair, a mixture of harsh higher vocals are the more dominant style throughout however the addition of a more lower deep growl allows the songs to have that extra layer. The drums add that additional power which brings out the viciousness of the tracks. Even though the guitars do take the centre stage on the album the drums are not lost and have a really solid clean and most importantly honest sound to them. In a time where drums can be overdone to the point they sound fake, Casket Feeder ensures the true sound is found within the record.
Casket Feeder expand on their back catalogue in spectacular fashion and with Servants of Violence they show that the mixture of death metal and hardcore can be achieved without a cliche and generic sound. The styles that Casket Feeder utilise work off another extremely well and as musicians Casket Feeders execution on Servants of Violence is flawless.
