Plague Bringer - Life Songs in a Land of Death

After pulverizing debut As the Ghosts Collect, the Corpses Rest, Chicago duo Plague Bringer return with more drum machine death/grind. They sound like if Scott Hull mixed up Pig Destroyer and Agoraphobic Nosebleed, and threw in some Godflesh riffs. The buzz for Life Songs in a Land of Death (Hewhocorrupts, 2008) has been huge, and it's mostly justified.

Suffering in Reverse
Shadows of Black Habit

It's tough to play against a drum machine; one has to excise the humanity from one's performance. However, Plague Bringer have mastered the art. Riffwise on a scale of 1 to 10, they consistently bang out 7's and 8's when most bands hover around 5's with occasional spikes. "Suffering in Reverse" pairs Suffocation-esque tremolo picking with scathing vocals that strangely recall Grace Perry of Landmine Marathon. "Shadows of Black Habit" has rather blatant Slayer riffage. Two seven minute-plus tracks delve into slow tempi, with surprising melodic touches from cello and hammered dulcimer; digital doom outfit Hyatari comes to mind.

Strong as these riffs are, they suffer from production that's ragged and slightly thin (bass guitar is absent, I think). The sound does have a certain hairy appeal, though (anyone remember '90s industrial cavemen Bile?). I don't understand why the beautiful digipak is covered by such a blah slipcase. The smoky textures on the digipak are stunning (Man Ray and Dali come to mind), stretching across three panels with raised ink. I prefer the explosive debut album, but this one is more of a complete package.

Life Songs is available physically (with free poster) at Indiemerchstore, and digitally at Amazon.