• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Nowadays, the Old School Death Metal revival wave is a huge movement for the extreme subgenre. While it is exciting for fans of the true old school era such as myself, it is also a cause to get disappointed frequently for a number of reasons. Firstly, many bands claiming to wave the flag of the true old school do not actually produce Death Metal that sounds that similar to much of the golden age of the music they are imitating. Secondly, much of the new content from these bands may contain a similar sound but do the bare minimum in doing so, not throwing anything interesting into the mix. And of course, there are always the occasional bands who replicate a sound so perfectly that they will be endlessly criticized for "copying" other bands. As for the band here in question, Rude have released something quite special. To add to that is a cool piece by Dan Seagrave on the cover.

Remnants... is the second full-length album from the band and follows a familiar pattern from their 2014 debut album, Soul Recall. It has been written in various pockets of the Internet that this band is easily compared to early Pestilence. It is certainly not hard to hear that in the sound, most evidently by the vocal stylings of Yusef Wallace, who sounds as if he was directly inspired by legendary vocalist Martin van Drunen. But that isn't the only reason to compare with Pestilence and an album such as Consuming Impulse, as the songwriting and general sound is also quite similar. However, this is no copy of Pestilence, especially made evident by the drumming by the now-former drummer Chad Gailey of Necrot, Mortuous, and Vastum fame. His performance on this album is much more varied than what you get with early Pestilence, as he does not mostly ride the skank beat through the songs. His blasting is well placed, not too frequent, and has an impressively chaotic sound that reminds me a little of early Morbid Angel, with which are another band to compare.

This is not an album that goes out of its way to impress the listener in some way, as it does require a few dedicated listens for the album to open up to the listener and reveal its genius, which is largely revolving around the guitar work. The first track "Torrent to the Past" feels much like a Covenant-era Morbid Angel track and has these far-reaching riffs formed of uniquely placed highs and lows, giving the track excellent replay value. The second track, "House of Dust" is one of the biggest standout tracks in the album, again for its excellent riffs and grooves, again really surprising the listener with expansive riffs that don't always go where one would expect. The brilliance in the riff writing is one of the biggest reasons to tune in more carefully while listening to this album. Along with that point is the way the guitars occasionally layer an additional voice on top of each other for added elaboration on various riffs after first being played without being harmonized. The solos are generally short and very heavy on the whammy bar action, driving atonal solos that are not so different from that of Suffocation, Slayer, and Cannibal Corpse to quick finishes in a way that enhances the vicious energy and does not overstay its welcome.

The album finishes with a track called "Children of Atom," which I believe was inspired by the Children of Atom from the blockbuster hit videogame Fallout 3, which were a tribe of poor souls who follow a cultist who leads them to worship at the irradiated site of an active atomic bomb in the town of Megaton. The song has a unique dual guitar tonality which somewhat reminds of Chuck Schuldiner's Death at times and stands out as a unique track for the album. While it is absolutely a solid track, it does not finish big, which is something that tends to disappoint me with albums in general. However, the album as a whole is a really solid ride.

If you are a fan of early Pestilence, Death, and Morbid Angel, there really is no reason not to pick this one up. As mentioned before, many bands waving the flag of the Old School Death Metal revival wave really are not living up to the standard of the scene they are imitating. Rude are not one of those bands failing at the revival and have a genuinely authentic old school sound.