Centinex - Doomsday Rituals

Artist: Centinex
Release Title: Doomsday Rituals
Year: 2016
Label: Agonia Records
Genre: Swedish Death Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Flesh Passion
2. From Intact to Broken
3. Dismemberment Supreme
4. Generation of Flies
5. The Shameful Few
6. Doomsday
7. Exist to Feed
8. Death Decay Murder
9. Sentenced to Suffer
10. Faceless

One of the genre’s longest-running veterans, Swedish death metal horde Centinex were among the first exponents of the Swedish style sound in their first incarnation before the band eventually split up. With the reformed line-up carrying on for the second straight release not wanting to wait decades for a release in a two-year hiatus, the group’s tenth overall full-length is released July 8, 2016 on Agonia Records.

There’s little surprise about this one considering everything known about this group’s origins and history. This is straightforward Stockholm-flavored death metal replete with churning buzzsaw riffing and stylish grooves that run the gamut from blistering full-throttle thrashers to a more generous mid-tempo gallop. Those slow down the focus into a driving plodding groove which incorporates some deep, heavy chugging into near doom-like sprawls that are still given enough of a hard-hitting, charging atmosphere with the churning buzzsaw riff-work while giving this some solid variety and deviation that gives this a solid, engaging time throughout here by giving the different styles plenty of room to really breathe in their rhythms. While stylistically this approach is ordinarily enjoyable, there’s a few minor distressing features here that hold this one back somewhat. Though the attack is generally crushing, there’s not nearly enough of the faster tracks here which really makes this one feel slower than it really should. This generates it’s fair share of savage tracks, but it comes off with just as much slower ones which eat up some of the time here. As well, there’s also the overall brevity of the album as a whole to contend with as this one really could’ve used more on those tracks here. It’s quite short here as a handful of tracks are over three-and-a-half minutes really makes them seem like they’re over before they even begin before it moves onto the next strike and they never quite let the rhythms breathe, which is what holds this one back somewhat.

Though it’s got some rather troubling issues here that do hold this one back somewhat, it’s still a strong, powerful display of Swedish-styled death metal from one of the genre’s first originators that manage to make this a solid choice for fans of that particular scene, old-school death fanatics or less discerning death metal fans in general.

Score: 83/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
http://centinexstore.bigcartel.com/