Random Earworms VI – Pemphigoid – Where Compassion Comes to Die

Taking notable influence from Obituary, Bolt Thrower, and Entombed, etc they remain very much their own thing and stomp their way through the music scene making fans wherever they go. Pemphigoid is Oldschool Death Metal at its purest form and its gloriously thick and stompy, from start to finish its an engrossing listen that will take you on a journey of true suffering!
There are songs and riffs that stay with you and will earworm their way into your subconscious while you mime them while pacing around intently, for a self-produced record this is an ode to the tape trading days of metal underground and that spirit lives on through Pemphigoid.
Not to be missed by the Death Metal fans and people ignorant of this rare and debilitating condition.

When I pressed the play button my ears perceived a familiar sound recognizing certain powerful influences like Bolt Thrower and Bloodbath but with its own brutal and very dense sound.

This trio sounds great! “Where Compassion Comes to Die” is a short album, only 28 minutes but very well exploited, to the maximum.

I think that this band has a lot of potential because they show a strong attachment to traditional old school dm style and with a tremendous demonstration of attitude. 

The weak point is in the production that sounds very raw and not so clean but it does not detract from the very good work of these guys. Good debut album! 7/10 for me.

As to the music, it sounds like pretty standard chugging death metal at first. As it progresses some tracks like “Endophagia” and “Bite Radius” (probably my favorite track on the album) incorporate what sounds more like straight rock melodies. I don’t know if you could fit this into the category of ‘death n roll’, but the combination doesn’t really work for me. If I’m going to have death metal aesthetics of growling vocals, down-tuned guitars, and a grimey fill, I want the music to be totally brutal. Altogether it didn’t really grab me.

The 28 and a half minute long album breaks up into 9 tracks, and what I felt as I listened through was that each and every one of them has a very similar, predictable beat and personally if the heavy element was to disappear and the vocals be in a normal way this could have been made by Bon Jovi. Some of the tracks start out in different ways, such as a heart monitor stopping or what sounds like either a police car or an ambulance, but it did sort of tell them apart. It´s quite listening friendly, as when I gave it a go I had a brain squashing migraine that had been bugging me since the day before and yet I made it through without wanting to pull all of my teeth out. It didn’t feel like listening to death metal much. Perhaps I have just had a little bit too much of extremely heavy death metal and this was rather light and what I would call radio friendly. The vocals are quite simple and fit the formula. So if you are into the lighter side of death and would like to have about half an hour of predictable beat or if you are battling a migraine, Pemphigoid is the way to go.

Now the music… When I pressed the play button, I already knew that was a Death Metal band, But what kind of Death Metal band? With that name, I thought a brutal Death Metal band but… The first band that came to my mind on the first riff… Obituary. The music continues to flow and more influences came to my mind. Bolt Thrower, Six Feet Under, and sometimes Edge of Sanity in the more melodic parts. This almost 29 minutes album is an old School mid-tempo Death Metal. Catchy riffs, strong voice and the cadence in the songs made my time enjoyable while listening to this album. I hope this band releases another album soon, cause I want to listen too.