After enjoying a drunken Halloween weekend, I decided to review DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN; a band from Sweden and the United Kingdom, they develop Death Metal as well as "Crust Punk" - is it just me or are genre titles getting more and more ridiculous? Anyway...this band were very interesting after my first listen to them; after a couple years from their first album "Down Among The Dead Men" the band release "Exterminate! Annihilate! Destroy!" you might think - that's a funny title, but don't judge a book by its cover. This album was a fine listen with many surprises in store; including a couple fine covers from ANVIL and DISCHARGE, I'd never think a Death Metal band would cover an ANVIL song, but they have - and it was pretty epic. Though I didn't hear any differences much, the ANVIL cover "Forged In Fire", was completely different to the original and the band incorporated their own style and made it brutal as hell, the way covers should always be, in my opinion.

From the opening track - "Pyramid Of Mars", the brutality began. The most noticeable element was the vocal transition; Dave Ingram has fine Death Metal vocals but nothing out of the ordinary that us Death Metal fans have discovered from all the greats. Let's not forget about the instrumentation - on guitars and bass Rogga Johansson and Dennis Blomberg, pound the crap out of their instruments. While the sound production sounded a bit...rough... (see METALLICA's "Death Magnetic") this doesn't bother me much, just a pinpoint for those who notice it and are fussy with that sense. Everything still sounded powerful and punching and is your typical Death Metal record, then again, most Metal fans prefer the raw sound of an album anyway so, this shouldn't bother you. The only other downside is probably the album length, most songs last up to 3 minutes long; which, isn't bad, as the album lasts around 40 minutes long anyway. So there's plenty of "bang for your buck". I guess I'm just too used to 6 minute long tracks.

In regards to ANVIL's "Forged In Fire" cover which was perfectly executed for Death Metal, there is also the DISCHARGE cover - "Protest And Survive" both are well done and tasty. But that's not all, from the half way point; this is where I got into it the most - "Arch Of Infinity", "Death Seed", "War Machines" etc; left me with a groovy headbang and this is pretty much the same effect for the rest of the album.

So if you're here to find a new sound in Death Metal standards, this is a good start. The genre "Crust Punk" will soon become clear to you. "Exterminate! Annihilate! Destroy!", I admit, is a different album for me, but still has powerful Death Metal charm and will leave you feeling that way, powerful, as well as unleashing your inner "brutal face of approval". This is by no means a perfect album, but it still has that integrity of one. Worth checking out nonetheless.