All Consumed – Birth Of Ruin – Album Review

UK death metallers All Consumed have always been a band who instinctively understand that death metal works best when appealing to your base instincts. By tapping into that part of your brain that responds to primitive head-banging commands, these Preston-based purveyors of filth have always delivered stripped-back, effortlessly effective death metal that’s less of a nostalgia trip and more of a modern doff of the cap to death metals’ pioneering forefathers.

And, as expected, opener “Empty Caskets” kicks things off with a riff straight out of Scandanavia’s dirty death metal rulebook and Birth Of Ruin already has you gasping in its strangled grasp! “Child’s Play” follows and the fact this monstrous track first reared its head on 2017’s Stain Of Humanity EP matters not a jot. Frankly, it’d be a highlight on any release and its reappearance on Birth Of Ruin is a welcome one.

After that, the “dirty grooves and catchy riffs” just keep on comin’ and the likes of the vicious “Descend” and the Bloodbath-esque “Choosing Death” (we always do lads, we always do!) slam you face-first into the kerb with remorseless intensity.

At just 8 brutally succinct tracks, Birth Of Ruin really is all killer, no filler and there’s no skipping a single moment before the relatively mid-tempo, Bolt Thrower-honouring, title track finishes you off in considerable style.

At heart, Birth Of Ruin is exemplary death metal delivered by a band who harness grooves in a way Six Feet Under wish they still did. That’s not to say that All Consumed should be lumped in with the beyond primitive noises coughed up by the likes of Jungle Rot and Chris Barnes’ aforementioned cronies, as there’s so much more to them than that. Then again, you’d hardly call them a technical death metal band either! We’ll just settle for calling them one of the best old-school death metal bands in the UK and leave it at that.

With each subsequent album improving on the last, Birth Of Ruin will truly be hard for All Consumed to top…..but we’ve no doubt they’ll do it! 8/10

But hey! Don’t just take our word for it, go to bandcamp and have a listen to Birth Of Ruin for yourselves!