Slit Throat Andromeda (CD - 2006)

For fans of extreme metal, the early to mid-2000s will be remembered as a time in which Europe dominated the death metal/black metal field and the United States dominated metalcore. Of course, Europe and the U.S. have a long history of influencing one another musically, and that has continued to hold true in the 21st century with European death metallers and black metallers influencing American bands and American metalcore combos influencing European artists. Slit Throat Andromeda points to the fact that Of Graves and Gods is a metalcore-oriented unit with some European death metal influences. This 2006 release is not an example of traditional metalcore (as in Hatebreed, Throwdown, or Brick Bath) but, rather, is more mindful of the technical metalcore style (which has combined metalcore with the complexity and angularity of math rock). Bleeding Through, Meshuggah, and Converge are influences; so are Lamb of God and Caliban. But hints of death metal do pop up a lot -- especially Scandinavian death metal, although traces of the Los Angeles-based Slayer can be heard as well (one shouldn't forget that even though Scandinavia began dominating death metal in the '90s, many of the important early death metal outfits that emerged in the '80s were from the United States). When a band like the New Mexico-based Of Graves and Gods has a recipe that is about 90 percent metalcore and ten percent death metal, brutality is bound to result -- and this is definitely a brutal, harsh, vicious sledgehammer of a CD. Of Graves and Gods' jagged material isn't remarkable or terribly memorable -- other bands have done a better job with this type of approach -- but Slit Throat Andromeda is a generally decent listen if one is in the mood for pure, raw, head-kicking exhilaration. ~ Alex Henderson minimize