HOUWITSER - Sentinel Beast CD

Houwitser was formed in the later 90's by (former) Sinister personnel, and since then has seen so many members coming and going that I somewhat suspect the criteria for joining the band is being able to spell the words 'death' and 'metal' correctly. You nail that, you're in. Now, the thing with line up changes is that it comes with often long periods of seeming inactivity, and "Sentinel Beast" (a nod to the eponymous 80's thrash band?) indeed comes after a long period of silence, and honestly, it was damn well worth the wait.

This album sees the return of original vocalist Mike, also the original Sinister frontman, and his demonic growling is just a joy to hear when combined with the violent and shit-heavy death metal the band has on offer. The band still combines fast blasting sections with heavy midtempo thundering stomp, while fluid death metal riffing and ripping guitar leads place a bloodred cherry right on top of this throbbing extreme music cake. The band grabs deep into their bag of influences to pull out elements of prime Cannibal Corpse, Deicide and (not all that surprising) early Sinister, creating a solid slice of death metal that sounds very familiar, but with enough of a face of its own to come out thoroughly convincing. Well, convinced I am for sure, and let me be buggered with a cucumber if other old school brutal deathbangers don't find anything of value in here as well.

The execution on here is absolutely spot on, and as a whole the album boasts a powerful production that sounds contemporary, without being overproduced, giving the music lots of space to breathe freely. Houwitser avoids the near-lethal trap of sterile and plastic sound engineering, managing to create a monstrously heavy musical offering, firmly rooted in old school aggression, with a subtle hint of technicality in the guitar work. This music crushes skulls the old fashioned way, doing it without sounding antiquated.

This is a return in style. Despite yet another shake up within the band, Houwitser still sound the way they've always done. These guys are experienced in the art and it shows, because everything sounds totally killer, with an added familiar feel to boot. If the concept of old school brutality isn't lost on you, go check this out immediately, it would be a screaming shame if you missed out.