Album Details

• Artist: Zombie Inc.
• Album: A Dreadful Decease
• Label: Massacre Records
• Year of Release: 2012
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: solitaryman on 2012-03-27

Zombie Inc. are a new, Austria-based death metal ensemble featuring ex-members of Pungent Stench, Belphegor and numerous others. A Dreadful Decease is their debut album, released on Valentine's Day of this year. The sound; a potent melodic form of death metal that takes on a harder edge than most melo-death I've come across, no small part in thanks to vocalist Martin Schirenc's thick, gutteral approach. The subject matter: a zombie apocalypse. If you know me, you know zombie apocalypses are right up my alley.

The lyrical approach seems to form a tale of a nightmare scenario of the walking dead appearing, consuming, overwhelming and eventually conquering the living. In it's own way it fleshes out into a narrative, but this is just how I interpret it. Regardless, the music itself is pretty damn good, the songwriting heavy with melodic hooks and gore galore. Any successful DM venture must employ aggressive, sometimes dominating time-keeping, and drummer Tomasz “Nefastus” Janiszewsk is really at the top of his game, punctuating tempo shifts and laying the foundation for morbid grooves with apparent ease and definite technical prowess. In terms of overall musicianship, Zombie Inc. certainly have a confidence and chemistry about them that belies their short time together. Check out the memorable instrumental sections and gurgling vocals of "Deadtribe Sinister", one of the album's most memorable tracks. Or maybe the agonizingly slow and plodding "Bloodrain Apocalypse", which will no doubt get your blood curdling before it's drained from your twitching corpse around the 3:15 mark. Actually, just check the whole album out; not a stinker in the mix. Unless you count the bodies...

Zombie Inc. have put forth a debut that should garner them instant acclaim and launch them into the upper registers of death metal's prominent acts. A Dreadful Decease is spotless in it's production (appropriately dirty and raw, courtesy of metal stalwart Dan Swano), magnificent in it's songwriting and thematically a thrillride. The gore and guts and endless ranks of the undead will satisfy those Romero-ites out there, while the excellent music should do for the rest.  

User Reviews and Comments