If the excellent 2007 full length 'Stigma Eternal' wasn't a hard enough album to follow, Germany's Deadborn have managed to do it with their latest masterpiece 'Mayhem Maniac Machine'. The band, consisting of former Necrophagist vocalist Mario Petrovic and drummer Slavek Foltyn, along with Jo Morath and Kevin Olasz on guitars, who formed in 2002, will delight current fans and gain new ones with this latest offering.



'Mayhem Maniac Machine' has everything the discerning Death Metaller could want from an album, nine tracks of strong, technically influenced and brutal Metal topped off with excellent, deep, brutal vocals. The opening track and my favourite on the album 'Premises Of Cryonics' has a real grove running through it, immediately making you look forward in anticipation of the rest of the album.

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The groove continues to run throughout the album with a brutal driving rhythms with the tracks 'Profanatic Reanimation', 'Replicant's Device' and 'Second Order Cybernetics', whilst 'Bionic Abomination' is awash with catchy technical riffs and that ever present groove.

There are a couple of long tracks that break the five minute barrier but the length is justifiable and your interest is maintained. 'Insane Motor Cortex', which has a downtuned groove to it that I loved and the added bonus of a guitar solo and the other, 'Slaves Of Megatron' has a scene setting, spoken intro and a varying tempo to keep the interest throughout.

By contrast the shortest track, 'Reinvented Power Process' at less than two minutes is an absolute riff fest. The final track and outro 'Kraftwerk D' is slower but still a brutal exit from the album.

There are vague similarities between Deadborn and Necrophagist soundwise, inevitable with two members of the latter band in the line-up and the album engineered mixed and mastered by Christoph Brandes who also produced Necrophagist but there is a brutal edge to Deadborn rather than the progressive edge prevalent with Necrophagist.

What there is no mistake about is that this is indeed an excellent album. I loved it, the musicianship was tight, with brutally powerful drums and vocals with the content varied and interesting.

'Mayhem Maniac Machine is out now on Apostasy Records.

23.4.12