CoC : Undertakers - Suffering Within : Review

Undertakers - _Suffering Within_
(Cryptic Soul, 1997)
by: Paul Schwarz (6 out of 10)

Undertakers have some good ideas and music rattling around inside _Suffering Within_; the album's greatest defect is that its slightly tinny drum production and a definite hissy background to the guitars make the band sound rather unprofessional -- a fact which is not borne out either by their ability, which is pretty decent, or their songwriting, which is certainly coming along. Most of this album can still be classed under the heading "run-of-the-mill death metal", but two tracks stand out and provide definite hope for the quality of future recordings. The first you will encounter is the third track, "Human Decline". Much of this track is taken up with adequately played riffs and blast beats, but a two chord riff and its backing, which come in a couple of times after the main chorus, give the song an excellent groove. I don't mean the kind of Coal Chamber / Limp Bizkit we-can't-really-play-so-we'll-"groove" sort, I mean a serious headbangin', rockin' groove!, which I think the band could try and incorporate more to produce some truly cool music, as long as they don't loose the brutality. The other aspect appears on last track "Seed", which is a strange sort of tribal/electro drum experiment. This track's methods are isolated here, but I feel meshing them with the rest of the bands music would further improve the quality of future recordings. A solid debut and quite a bit that can be developed on.

Contact: engiann@tin.it

(article published 8/7/1998)

ALBUMS
8/12/1999	P Schwarz	6	Undertakers - Live in Brutality

DEMOS
1/16/1999	P Schwarz	4	Undertakers - Advance Tape 1998