From Calgary, Canada comes the powerful trio known as Dying Remains and ‘Merciless Suffering’ is their debut full-length album after the ‘Entombed in Putrefaction’ EP from 2023. When you see a cover artwork of decaying skeletons and human eviscerated entrails you know that you are in for a treat.
The beginning is set by the title track ‘Merciless Suffering’ and what you get is powerful Old School Death Metal with crushing guitar riffs, stomping rhythm and the raging growls of Damon MacDonald. There is a definite influence from bands like Asphyx in Dying Remains’ music with some doomy passages mixed with the overall Death Metal aggression and some melodic guitar leads here and there. ‘Hung and Drawn’ is next and it is in the same pattern: crushingly slow at moments and fast at others, this track also has an official video. ‘Upon the Torture Rack’ starts with some blastbeats and fast tempos that can break your neck from headbanging. The same formula is more or less followed throughout the whole album: slow heavy passages followed by galloping rhythm.
‘Sawblade Execution’ is one of the faster tracks capable of creating bloody moshpits live. One thing that should be mentioned is the remarkable sound production of this album; all instruments may be clearly heard and the sound is thick and powerful. Obviously the three guys in Dying Remains are seasoned and experienced musicians and know pretty well how to create crushing Death Metal sound mixed with some modern Hardcore elements evident in the slow parts of the tracks like in ‘Path of Brutality’ and the closing track ‘As the Blade Swings Down’.
For a debut album ‘Merciless Suffering’ is an impressive effort filled with brutality and aggression mixed with high level musicianship. In case you are into Old School Death Metal with modern sounding production then you should give an ear to the music of Dying Remains.
