Label: Godz ov War Productions
Date: June 1st, 2022
I cannot help but feel sorry for Stillborn fans suffering from OCD. Imagine having one of your favorite bands continuously pushing record after record with titles in Spanish language, while the rest is in Polish or English. The horrors these Poles keep putting them through…
But then they push that little “play” button and… Well, the horrors are piling one after the other. I mean, Stillborn has been around for quite some time. Not to mention all the other bands the members are involved in. Yet, somehow, they manage another repentless, relentless, mass murder of a record!
Traditionally leaning both on the South American blackened death metal superstructure as well as their local brand of thrashing death metal, Stillborn sounds fierce and absolutely almighty. The light years of experience behind them are put to good use once again, as they force feed the listener some serious tonnage of extreme metal. Pausing just to swing back the axe, right before they slam it right between your eyes.
I could go on with metaphors all day long. And still not be sure if I’m judging “Cultura de la Muerte” properly. Simply put, Stillborn hands out massive creative effort where you couldn’t even imagine it. It’s not fair to say that a genre like this lends little space to imagination. It’s just a matter of one having enough of it to make something useful within a rather shelled spacing. And this is exactly where this trio dominates.
Without succumbing to overusing the technicalities, they manage riffs that sounds fairly fresh. And not only fresh, but quite catchy as well. It’s not just the guitars, by the way. For instance, the drums play a gigantic role on the album. With a less inspired drummer, this would have easily been a much weaker record. Take the second track (I’m not even going to attempt writing its name) off the record as an example. Mega work by the lead guitar is superbly supported by the playful drums. Then again, the one following it “Triumfator – Pogromca” (much easier to spell) presents the bass player as the lead one in that tremolo segment in the middle. All of them, together with the monster of a voice performance, command respect.
What I’m basically trying to say is that Stillborn is brutal, aggressive, has an excellent production and a cover artwork that brilliantly depicts all of the above written. But that’s quite easy to achieve. What still separates the Poles from the rest is that they manage to make their songs more than just agonizing head bangers. They’ve got hooks. They’re memorable. They’re interesting to hear and a total delight for the fans of the genre that’s not always the first association with excess of creative force. In short, “Cultura de la Muerte” is an instant knock-out blow!
