In The Jaws Of Bereavement

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6.0

• Bands:
  MAUL
• Duration: 00:38:37
• Available from: 04/10/2024
• Label:

• 20 Buck Spins

Streaming not yet available

Maul's second album, “In the Jaws of Bereavement”, in a certain sense represents an important step forward in the career of the death metal band from North Dakota: it is in fact the first album that the boys recorded for 20 Buck Spin, label which has now become decidedly influential in the underground scene.
On a sound level, this new full-length follows the stylistic coordinates traced by previous works, maintaining those death metal and hardcore roots that derive from the mixed background of the members of the lineup. However, just a few listens are enough to realize how the quintet's musical proposal is still in a phase of consolidation, with a notable overall impact, but undoubtedly uneven at times.
As expected, “In the Jaws of Bereavement” is immediately characterized by a muscular sonic violence, which rather clearly refers to the recent school of bands like Gatecreeper and Fuming Mouth. The tracks move on a territory dominated by dense riffs and stentorian rhythms, ideal for generating that martial energy typical of a certain modern death metal contaminated by hardcore. This is probably one of the most successful aspects of the album: the direct impact, the ability to convey an ignorant fury that could work particularly well in a live context. The structure of the songs, rather simple and immediate, follows in particular the example of the first Gatecreeper, a reality that demonstrated how combining the heaviness of death metal with leaner arrangements can be successful in hybrid or predominantly hardcore/punk contexts.
However, compared to the efforts of the aforementioned colleagues, “In the Jaws of Bereavement” suffers from a certain lack of cohesion and overall vision. The influence of bands like Obituary and Bolt Thrower is often evident, but Maul don't always manage to blend these inspirations seamlessly. The quotes can sometimes appear forced or poorly integrated with the other components of the sound, among which we even find particularly compressed and obsessive textures, which recall the very first works of Job For A Cowboy, together with the typical old school groove of death metal of the 1990s. Ninety. In the midst of all this, there are also some more somber and solemn cues, such as in the midtempo “Midwest Death”. In short, the alternation between these styles and the way in which they are combined throughout the tracklist can be jarring, making it difficult for the listener to completely immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the album or to recognize immediately winning pieces in this large cauldron.
Examining the trend in question, bands like Xibalba, Kruelty and Terminal Nation have raised the bar quite a lot in recent times, while Maul still seem to be a step behind. Their proposal appears at times cumbersome and vaguely naive, incapable of matching the effectiveness and compositional maturity of the more established realities of the subgenre. This is certainly music that could earn a lot when performed in concert, but otherwise this is a group that still has to work quite a bit on the fluidity of their songwriting in order to emerge with greater force.