Stalwart’s newest album,
Annihilation Begins, typifies the newest-fangled brand of death metal that is not DNA-deep death metal—admittedly, because of my age, I compare and contrast bands that seemingly can be categorized as death metal to the likes of Death, Morbid Angel, Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, and Deicide, etc., so these newfangled bands cannot, I contend, really be categorized as death metal even though they have appropriated the core elements and conventions of the genre—that is a welding of technical death metal to thrash metal. The band is not totally dissimilar from some modern acts, such as America’s Revocation and The Black Dahlia Murder but without the copious blast beats and shriek-style vocals, as Stalwart prefers the more guttural vocals approach, down-tuned guitars, and gallop-style drumming with intermittent moments of blast-beating. However, I very much prefer Stalwart to these two bands, so it might be rhetorically counterproductive on my part to make this specific comparison (especially seeing that I do not like them at all), but I truly do not see why folks who do like the two aforementioned bands (“not that there is anything wrong with that!”) would not appreciate St. Petersburg’s Stalwart. In fact, I will submit that if given a chance, Stalwart’s
Annihilation Begins will not only impress fans of this newest wave of death metal—or should I say instead
faux death metal?—that Revocation and The Black Dahlia Murder exemplify, but stands a good chance in eclipsing those two at their own game. Tracks worthy of spotlighting: “Annihilation Begins,” “Collective Mentality Detune,” “Casus Belli,” “Riding the Edge of Catastrophe,” and “Terminal Silence.”
Stalwart’s newest album, Annihilation Begins, typifies the newest-fangled brand of death metal that is not DNA-deep death metal—admittedly, because of my age, I compare and contrast bands that seemingly can be categorized as death metal to the likes of Death, Morbid Angel, Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, and Deicide, etc., so these newfangled bands cannot, I contend, really be categorized as death metal even though they have appropriated the core elements and conventions of the genre—that is a welding of technical death metal to thrash metal. The band is not totally dissimilar from some modern acts, such as America’s Revocation and The Black Dahlia Murder but without the copious blast beats and shriek-style vocals, as Stalwart prefers the more guttural vocals approach, down-tuned guitars, and gallop-style drumming with intermittent moments of blast-beating. However, I very much prefer Stalwart to these two bands, so it might be rhetorically counterproductive on my part to make this specific comparison (especially seeing that I do not like them at all), but I truly do not see why folks who do like the two aforementioned bands (“not that there is anything wrong with that!”) would not appreciate St. Petersburg’s Stalwart. In fact, I will submit that if given a chance, Stalwart’s Annihilation Begins will not only impress fans of this newest wave of death metal—or should I say instead faux death metal?—that Revocation and The Black Dahlia Murder exemplify, but stands a good chance in eclipsing those two at their own game. Tracks worthy of spotlighting: “Annihilation Begins,” “Collective Mentality Detune,” “Casus Belli,” “Riding the Edge of Catastrophe,” and “Terminal Silence.”