Into the Deepest Wounds

With their second album, New York's Withered Earth offers up ten songs of angry death metal with a slight hardcore edge. They don't offer anything revolutionary in terms of their style or songwriting approach, but they do a nice job of mixing things up, alternating between grooving mid-tempo sections, grindcore blastbeats, and technically demanding instrumental breakdowns. Lead singer Adam Bonacci's deep, growling vocals (which do differ somewhat from the stereotypical Cookie Monster growl) come across as suitably angry given the alienated lyrics he's dealing with. Add in an excellent drumming performance and some interestingly discordant guitar parts (to go along with the otherwise predominant meat-and-potatoes riffing approach), and you have the makings of a solid album. Still, because there is nothing really drastic that stands out about this band — at least on this release — Into the Deepest Wounds will likely appeal more to established fans of the genre (that would be "brutal American death metal") than it will to newcomers.