Legacy of Brutality – Ad Bellum (2012)

Our favorite Spanish Death Metal band returns with their latest release titled “Ad Bellum”. Being a double CD release, the first CD contains four brand new tracks, a cover of Gorefest’s “The Glorious Dead” and a video track. The second CD contains a crushing 46 minute live show they recorded last year. Nicely illustrated and well presented, this release continues the crushing path the band set in their previous release “Path of Forgotten Souls”.

Opening with crushing riffs, “Masacrado” delivers waves of punishing guitars, massive drumming, and very powerful growls. The band’s ability to craft catchiness into brutality is as good as always, making this song very entertaining. On then four minute chug fest “Para la das paredes do cliseu”, the band crafts very meaty hooks and a nice older DM vibe with a few upgrades in the guitar department. If you like traditional Death Metal, but also enjoy the clarity and guitar work of modern bands, this will surely catch your attention.

The hyper aggressive “Devoured by the sun” is our favorite track of this release thanks to the sheer brutality the band crates in this crushing track. Opening with very catchy guitar work, “Follow the Unleashed” features a pulsating bass guitar line that is pretty well carved into the track and outlined by the excellent production behind this CD. This track also has a bit of a Black Metal influence on a section of the guitar work, making it a very interesting song to listen to.

The cover of “The Glorious Dead” is pretty solid, however the band failed to fully bring this song into their own sound and sounds completely off from the first 4 tracks. We enjoy when a band is able to bring somebody else’s track into the own sound and still manage to keep some of the original elements in there. Legacy of Brutality tried to fit in some things, but the overall song sounds a bit disconnected from the EP.

In terms of the live CD, we think it is actually a pretty good recording and the songs sound very good on them. We don’t usually review live stuff in terms of the music, but we can say that it is interesting to hear how the band’s tracks work in a live setting since they play all of the songs on “Path of Forgotten Souls”. With an excellent recording quality, we still wonder if after only one full-length release a band should be entitled to a live CD. Regardless of this we still think is a nice thing to be added on for fans.

As a great value for your money, this release is packed with neck breaking Death Metal that will surely please any fan of the genre and the band. With over 60 minutes of music with the two CD’s combined, we have to say that Legacy of Brutality provides a good amount of entertaining for a fair price.

Release: March 2012

Country: Spain