Acephalix

This reissue of this San Francisco, CA-based death metal band's 2010 demo is an impressive affair, which is no surprise, given the always-on label execs over at Southern Lord deemed it suitable for mass consumption. Here, the band show their crust-punk roots on tracks like the stomping "Immemorial Past," which rocks like all those Grave tunes you forgot about immediately after hearing them while crashing at a shit hole DIY hovel that only made you pay by donation to get in earlier that night to rub dandruff-infested shoulders with some scumbag with an underage girlfriend. But this band sound like Entombed when they had a different name, just like all the tape-traders always talk about, so who cares? Those aforementioned crust-punk roots really don't come through all that often, making this generic death metal of the best kind with half a percent more energy than death metal usually has. The whole 25 minutes are chock full of great mid- to high speed beats and riffs, all of which have been recorded before by other bands, but all of which rule. Trivia: no less than three Acephalix members currently play in Vastum, another band that are so metal it hurts, but in a different way, philosophically.