Maybe people can see the limit of what one could call as Old School Death Metal and what Death Metal became for the future the year of 1991. Until those days, Death Metal acts respected the models defined by “Seven Churches”, “Scream Bloody Gore”, “From Beyond”, “Left Hand Path”, “Leprosy”, “Master”, “Slowly We Rot”, “Like an Ever Flowing Stream”, “Deicide”, “Eaten Back to Life”, “Severed Survival”, “Dark Recollections” and other classic releases for the genre, because albums as “Blessed are the Sick”, “Testimony of the Ancients”, “Human”, “The Key”, “Unquestionable Presence”, “Focus” and others came to expand limits and create new subgenres.

Maybe this is a good definition for what is Old School Death Metal, and for what is heard on “The Mortuary Haunting”, the second album of HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY. The band’s music is solely this: a form of playing Old School Death Metal as the genre was initially conceived to be: rough, aggressive and brutal, with nasty instrumental tunes and a simple technical appeal. But pay attention: on the band’s ranks are musicians with names as MASSACRE, PAGANIZER, MONSTROSITY, DIVINE RAPTURE, RIBSPREADER and many others, so they known what they’re doing. It’s a frenzy of riffs and a slaughter of rhythms with growls filling everything. And for Death Metal fans, it’s more than enough to enjoy a good time. In the studio, Håkan Stuvemark (mixing, mastering) and Ronnie Björnström (mixing) shared the responsibility to create the right sonority for the album, and the option was for something that could be called ‘classic Death Metal sonority’, but with some improvements (because ethe sound is defined and understandable). It’s a good work, indeed, and what great artwork for the cover was created by the Colombian artist Felipe Mora.

As said above, “The Mortuary Haunting” has everything that an Old School Death Metal fan asks for to be satisfied, especially when hearing to “Cadavers Emerge” (an Old School Death Metal song filled with good rhythmic contrasts, what means that bass guitar and drums are working on a very good way), “Beware of the Woods” (impossible to resist to its brutal appeal, with nasty and sickening guitar riffs from the speakers, and some Hardcore influences can be heard clearly), “Beyond Oblivion” (some technical arrangements heard on this one are truly great), “The Book of Eibon” (again some Hardcore influences arises, with very good grunts being laid on the instrumental sheath), “Opening the Gates of Hell” (a slow and hooking moment on the album, with very good riffing) and “Crypts of Torment”.

The idea behind “The Mortuary Hauntings” isn’t to recreate Death Metal, but just to play the Old School way in the most honest way possible. And HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY is an honest and very good band.