Gruesome - Twisted Prayers

When Gruesome’s debut’s comically gory album cover sparked my curiosity in 2015, I was both astonished and a little bit disturbed by what I was hearing. I knew Chuck Schuldiner was dead, but Savage Land made me swear for a moment that he had somehow risen from the grave to pick up right where he left off. On one hand, it’s impressive how pinpoint-accurate they have Death’s sound pinned down on every single song, but on the other, it’s almost creepy how goddamn close they sound to one of extreme metal’s most legendary and influential acts. Matt Harvey’s vocal performances are particularly uncannily identical to Schuldiner’s, and the compositions Harvey writes are just as convincing of him indeed being Chuck Schuldiner reincarnated. Yet this band’s about-perfect imitation is perhaps the biggest and most committed tribute to Schuldiner’s legacy, and at that, it succeeds in spades.

While Death’s legendary status in metal came partly due to their pioneering of death metal, their ambition carried them from simply being one of the first to do it to being true innovators and masters of the genre as albums like Symbolic and Individual Thought Patterns show. And even their early work has stood the test of time. Death’s participation in a newly blossoming genre was what got them to the stage, but Schuldiner’s compositional abilities and ambitious expansion of the genre’s sound is what cemented their legacy.

Twisted Prayers is no less uncanny than Savage Land, and channels Death’s keystone characteristics with seemingly flawless effortlessness. The only major difference between the two is the slightly clearer production on this new album, and just maybe a tiny farther leaning toward the aspects of Death’s sound more prominent in the latter part of their discography in this album as well (though the cover art clearly tributes Spiritual Healing).

Even though Gruesome hit every check-mark to capture the essence of Death’s sonic aesthetic, Schuldiner’s brilliant songwriting and alchemy-level mastery of the genre seems to be that last, and most crucial, standard that Harvey can’t quite duplicate. It’s no knock to his stellar ability already to recreate Death’s presence in honor of Chuck Schuldiner, but it does also highlight how important Schuldiner’s writing was to Death’s sound. Harvey works up some impressively Death-esque solos and nails the dynamic of Schuldiner’s riffing exquisitely. But what he can’t replicate is Schuldiner’s vision and 6th-sense-esque knack for composing songs within the old-school death metal and technical death metal styles that made the genre look amazing and drew so many in during its primordial stages. That irreplaceable X factor.

If simply not being able to write with the same sense of dynamic as the legendary Death frontman is this this band’s and this album’s only real weakness, that’s certainly not a damning problem considering how few have been able to influence death metal quite as dramatically as Chuck Schuldiner did. And considering Gruesome isn’t exactly about originality in the first place, I’d say it’s forgivable, and Twisted Prayers is definitely a worthwhile listen for any fan of Death or the genre they helped establish.

Like the band’s debut record, Twisted Prayers is more openly worshipful of the groups heroes than it is intent on crafting a unique artistic statement, which is just fine, but it limits itself in that way to simply being a tribute album. While that is the point of Gruesome, the nit-picky part of me thinks that a more complete tribute to Death would also encompass Schuldiner’s ambition and eagerness to continue to improve his abilities, his sound, and his genre. It’s a commendable effort, but personally, I honestly don’t know how much I want to keep coming back to an album that simply restates Death’s key features.