Here we have DAWN OF CHAOS, a Death Metal band from the UK signed to the record label UKEM (United Kingdom Extreme Metal) brandishing their debut album, "The Need To Feed". These guys are at the same time also going by the name VACIVUS where last year they self-released the same album (same tracklist & album cover) as on this one except then the album was called "Dawn of Chaos"... Naturally this means a name-change, right? Yes, but not in the direction you'd think: They used to be called DAWN OF CHAOS and are now called VACIVUS, and they've recently released an EP called "Rites of Ascension" via Goatprayer Records. As VACIVUS; DAWN OF CHAOS doesn't exist anymore. But they're signed to UKEM and recently released this album... Yeah let's just quickly move on before heads start exploding (including my own).

Despite the whole confusing situation, which I really hope I wasn't the only one having trouble with, once I got into blasting this on my device it quickly turned out to be a fairly decent Death Metal record, of which the only real problem I had with it was the sound production; for a Death Metal album I expect loud, absolute brutality - nothing more, nothing less. But this.. this one felt lacking on the loud department. It's like: you bought a record, you got home and played it, and even though you turned it up to 11, it didn't really sound like it was turned to 11, more like a 6. So even though the album itself sounded like a great addition to my collection, this really bugged me about the album.

And let's just get something straight: Musically it kicks arse! "The Need To Feed" is a fairly high quality album, musically, featuring some great growling vocals from Paul Hartburn and some awesomely pounding drum sounds from Ian Finley which along with some fine riffage from Dan Rochester and Ross Oliver that in combination, despite the sound quality, had me headbanging just couple of tracks in with both "Blind, Torture, Kill" and "The Thrall Engine". Proceeding into "Force Fed Embryonic Slurry" we see the trademark Death Metal naming silliness begin with that title, while continuing the gruelling Death Metal Thrash-about.

"Engineering Atrocities" turns up the brutality, as one might expect with such an ominous name, only to phase into "Muffocated" which brings out the inner CANNIBAL CORSPE refuge and had me unleashing the brutal face of approval and headbanging in true Alex Webster fashion! Some great riffs here, and bravo to that fine bass work near the end, Dan Jones! Mmhmm, very tasty it was!

"Abominatrix" explores the band's inner thrash skills and keeps this brutal integration in check, only to give way to the amusingly titled "An Austrian Nursery Crime" which is just an insane joyride of brutality. The album then reaches its end with "Butchered" and the title track "The Need To Feed", upon which the album reaches its conclusion to the brutality of some epic, DETHKLOK-like growls and just fantastic musicianship all throughout. And despite being so enjoyable at its core, the production just stone-walled this one for me.

Sure, some might say that I'm deaf or had my volume turned down, but trust me, every session had me feeling the need to have my volume turned to 11, or more if possible. For me this was the only disappointing feat for this great British Death Metal band, and otherwise "The Need To Feed" would have made it to the 9/10 mark. But sound production is very important, and have brought down the punching force of many an album. Still, it might be worth checking it out if you're out for a Death Metal brute fest if you can deal with it not quite managing to check that oh-so-important "loud as fuck" box.