It’s not a secret that DEATH, POSSESSED, MASTER’s early incarnations and MASSACRE are names that plays a key role on the creation of North American Death Metal School, and that IMMOLATION, AUTOPSY, MORBID ANGEL, INCANTATION, EXHUMED, SUFFOCATION, CANNIBAL CORPSE, DEICIDE, OBITUARY and some others refined the model and defined the elements of the genre on USA. But’s interesting how many younger acts are using the model of the 90s today, and presenting very good results. One of them is the Iowa trio MUTILATED BY ZOMBIES, here with its fourth full-length, “Scenes From the Afterlife”.

Recorded at Romb of the Mutilated, with mixing and mastering of J.B. Van Der Wal (who previously worked with ABORTED, WARCULT, NO GODS NO MASTERS, INQUISITOR, SAMARITAN, SOULBURN, and others), the sonority is aggressive and brutal, but with the needed definition for the trio’s music gain life. And the sinister and morbid artwork created by Karl Dahmer depicts what the hearers will find on the album. The trio works on a traditional North American Death Metal way: as brutal as it can be, sometimes fast, on others with a slower set of tempos, good technical level and always aggressive. It’s full of energy and life, and even on such traditional model of Death Metal, they show that they can do things in their own way, without copying what was already done by others. It means: be prepared, because a massive Death Metal onslaught is about to begin!

Nine torments are show on the album, so be prepared. And is essential to have an idea of what the band is about to taste “Headcount Rising” (fine rhythmic shifts, with a very good work on bass guitar and drums), “Molten” (excellent guitar riffs, and a groove inherited from Thrash Metal is heard in some arrangements), “Decontaminaion” (fine slow parts filled with fine instrumental arrangements and low grunts), “Gutsplit” (another moment with influences from Thrash Metal on the guitars), “Severely Severed” (the technical appeal here is evident, with some rich broken rhythms), and “Behold the Demigod”.

“Scenes from the Afterlife” is a good and honest Death Metal release, and MUTILATED BY ZOMBIES is a very good band, indeed. But I believe that a second guitarist would boost their musical possibilities.