I don’t know a whole hell of a lot about Zed Destructive other than that they hail from Israel, and that their album Corroded by Darkness is out now. It’s taken a while to filter onto our playlist, but it’s one of those surprises that’s been worth picking up and chucking on the mp3 player.
They’re no holds barred death metal with black overtones, and not out to shape any new moulds. Simply, they’re dark and evil and bludgeoning. Nothing new or genre-defining, but what they do they do well. The production of the album is meaty, and it’s the tenderising hammer-blows of the drums that really got me listening when “Repulsive Society” invaded my headphones. Very little crash or treble, they sound like Rocky Balboa on a rampage, slamming punch after punch into hanging carcasses. Absolutely ideal.
There are some nice old-school Sepultura acoustic intros to “Raped Existence” and “The Dark Wanderer”, but they don’t outstay their welcome before the destruction begins. I definitely found myself working away at my desk with my head nodding slowly quite often as I had the album on!
Zed Destructive do well to rattle off ten original tracks (and a cover) on this album without sounding repetitive or overly generic. It’s a very crowded scene with thousands of bands (many of them very good) to compete with, but they definitely hold their own. There’s an edge of melodeath in places, some songs have some harsher black metal sounds, but overall this is quality death metal.
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The aforementioned cover is a faithful arrangement of Deicide’s “The Truth Above” (from Serpents of the Light) and in terms of production I actually think it wins out over the original because of the punchier delivery.
Corroded by Darkness doesn’t unleash any surprises, but it’s a wholesome slab of devastatingly heavy death metal which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed listening to.
Check out all the bands we review in 2021 on our Spotify and YouTube playlists!
