Dying Light

After releasing some of the best metal records to come from a relatively unheralded label, Willowtip certainly doesn’t disappoint with its latest offering. Boasting some heavy hitting "ex” members (Cattlepress, Ripping Corpse, Dim Mak and Hemlock), the Dying Light deliver on all expectations of awesome. Strange and prolonged technical pieces — reminiscent of Death’s affinity for easy-listening mathematics — are usually followed by high speed riffs that bring a frantic element into play. Their brand of thrash is akin to the consistently manoeuvring guitar works of Carcass but is brought up a notch by the aforementioned penchant for playing with time. They combine these influences and a variety of styles from full-on melodic tremolo death metal underwritten by blast beats to chaotic but calculated stop-start madness. Occasionally they’ll delve more into a grind influenced approach to speed but they mostly keep things at a steady pound. The addition of Eric Rutan’s production is visionary and for reasons yet to be understood he makes every band sound better than his own. Admittedly, this isn’t Willowtip’s most amazing release to date but be sure to keep watching because these days they’re one of few labels committed to pushing the envelope.