For all the joy to be had in Metal's ever-increasing multitude of genres, there's still something refreshing about a good old-fashioned Death Metal record. After weeks indulging in Prog, Djent, Stoner and Post-Rock, nothing quite hits the spot like a full on blast of primal violence and "Martyr Creation" is just that. Stripped of all pretension and firing on all cylinders from start to finish, it's a cathartic blast of underground extremity that could have been spawned from the Florida scene during the eighties. It's not an instant classic, but it will get you headbanging  and rooting through your wardrobe for old SIX FEET UNDER shirts almost immediately.

The band themselves already have an established reputation, having been plying their trade on and off since 1996. It's been a full six years since their previous outing but to be fair, there's not a lot of money in Death Metal and scraping together enough pennies to pay for the studio takes time. GUTTED might have made their supporters wait a long time but it's hard to imagine anyone being disappointed by "Martyr Creation."

Once the intro-track is out the way, the dense and ruthlessly heavy "Cosmos Of Humans" arrives like a Chuck Liddell haymaker. It is a brutally up-front and confrontational song that acts as a warning shot for any fair weather Death Metal fans; "Cosmos Of Humans" ain't pretty, but you're not getting any respite later on. If anything it only gets worse. "False Happiness," "Consuming Life," "Deeper Than Hell," "Fades Away" and in fact the entire track list are equally unrepentant.

The sheer naked vehemence of it all masks some exceptional playing though. GUTTED aren't simply a gang of thugs making the most obnoxious noise they can think of, they can really play. Some of the guitar riffs are ridiculously technical and maintaining them at a light-speed pace is impressive indeed. Drummer Tamas Sandor meanwhile might be one of the most underrated musicians to sit behind the kit, he churns out blast beats so fast it wouldn't be surprising if he turned out to be more machine than man.

At times of course their commitment to playing as fast as possible does make the album get a bit monotonous and even with only eight full songs, it still feels a bit long, but otherwise "Martyr Creation" is hard to fault. There's nothing here that'll herald in a glorious new era in the history of Death Metal, but it's heavier than a herd of Dark Matter elephants and just as stubborn. This one is a neck-wrecker and sometimes, that's all you need.