Centinex – “World Declension”
Centinex in Swedish means: quality songs of memorable, blazing, often blasting, buzzsaw-guitar and traditional gruff growling. It’s a bit puzzling how such a harsh musical approach results in creative pieces that are easy to understand, to get into. Definitely interesting is also the fact that there are no melodic guitar solos or the usual musical strategies designed to hook in the listener. The main tool at work here is just sheer muscle. The 38 minutes that make up this release continue to demonstrate more than amply that Centinex can keep up the quality of the songs for the whole time of the release. This is, in fact, a nonstop barrage of quality buzzsaw guitar with hooks, in the riffs and in the solos. The vocals are, by far, strong total gruff death, just so you know. The drumming is monstrous: it sounds, at times, like those fills and blasts have two drummers working. At certain spots, from a physical standpoint, it’s very intense because it’s not just speed, but the other things that are going on besides the pounding. There is a whole lot of old school Swedish death going on here, a lot. However, whereas that style tends to be non-blasting, this blasts often. Also, the drumming is excellent, the riffing is urgent and this music is just more intense and exciting than a band like Dismember. This band has been laboring for years, largely unnoticed, but you’d be surprised by the quality and songwriting ability of this bunch. “Blood Hunt” from about 1999 was interesting, “Diabolical Desolation” from about 2002 was awesome. From then on, this band has been developing in a huge way.