A Death Metal act can be in an Old School form but can put both feet into the future as well. The main 'x' of the question is how to do such a thing, and there's not only one right answer (the wrong is mainly trying to emulate even the sonority of those days), and some acts are wasting efforts. But the Spanish quartet UNDEAD, of the city of Madrid, is here to show some possibilities with "Putrefactio", their second full length. Their approach is similar to the same one shared by acts as DISMEMBER, ASPHYX, SINISTER, ENTOMBED (on its early album), BOLT THROWER and other titans of the past, but with a difference given by some Blackened Death Metal traces and the band's personality.

Yes, even bearing the same clichés of the past, their sickening musical work is based on a personal approach with a very good technical set of arrangements (check the rhythmic shifts shown on "Zugzwang" to have an idea), and what young and savage energy flows from their songs. It's really great to hear such an album. One of the endless explanations of why "Putrefaction" is such good work is on the sound quality. They hired for mixing and mastering the album the Death Metal headmaster Dan Swäno, and the sonority is something that exposes the Old School Death Metal traits of the band, but with an updated sonority that is aggressive and nasty, allowing the band's music to show strength and impact, but in a way that anyone can understand what's being expressed.

There are 10 songs of Death Metal skull crushing on the album, but it's clear that the fans of the genre will fall in love with moments as "Feast for the Worms" (a massive and brutal song filled with Old School Death Metal rhythms, with sharp and nasty guitar riffs, and sickening arrangements and solos), "Intermediate State of Reality" (a fast and brutal song, with excellent rhythms created by bass guitar and drums), "Zugzwang" (again very good rhythmic changes with some Blackened Death Metal melodic subjective sheath created by the guitars), "Serpent's Gift" and "Discordia" (both are violent and extreme, and both songs are filled with excellent snarls of the vocals that are far from the usual guttural grunts of the genre), and "Putrefactio" in the first time. But as the album's homogeneous, one will fall in love with it easily on the second time.

The Spanish Death Metal scene is really showing great works in the past two or three years, and "Putrefactio" is one of the best releases of the Spanish School of the genre. Try it, and praise UNDEAD!