Death Metal was born in the first half of the 80's, and since then, it mutated and evolved as time passed by. Even today, with new genres and ways of play the genre, there are those who want to make things as they were back in the first half 90's, the golden age for the genre, the days when the seminal releases built a new foundation that allowed Death Metal to evolve. It's not a sin to do such way, but it must be done with personality. And ENSAGUINATE, from Slovenia, comes to show what they got with "Entranced by Decay", their first release.

It's the most pure and nasty form of Old School Death Metal, gathering influences from ancients as DEATH, ENTOMBED, DISMEMBER, CARNAGE, PESTILENCE, MORBID ANGEL and others. So it's no hard to hear the Hardcore influences on the tempos, as well the vocational tendency to not go far from the model stated by the pioneers. But into the musical work of the band, we can hear potential and a strong personality pulsing. It's crude, full of energy and can satisfy the Old School Death Metal fans, besides it's not brilliant. The EP was mixed and mastered by Andrej Čuk (the band's vocalist/guitarist) at Negligence Studios, so he did a work that could be characterized as Old School Death Metal sonority, rough and raw, but in a way the listeners can understand what's being done. Though it's far from being perfect, it fits for now.

"Ghoul Presence" (a typical Old School Death Metal song with Thrash Metal and Hardcore influences, with good technical approach, especially on bass guitar and drums), "Hunted" (brutal and fast in an Old School way, with nasty guitar riffs), "Pit of Ash" (a fine and tender aggressive insight can be heard, with very good grunts) and "Untended Graves, Scattered Remains" (this one shows very good guitars once more, but with Old School Hardcore influences detected on the rhythms) show the potential that the band has, but that still needs to mature a bit more.

For now, ENSAGUINATE deserves praises for facing the trial to play Old School Death Metal with personality. And in the future, the successor of "Entranced by Decay" can be something really great.