Fast, hard-hitting and energetic – three words that pretty much sum up Extracting Souls by French death metallers Dungortheb.
It’s pretty much standard-sounding death metal with no real surprises or different approaches to be found within its 46-minute duration, so it has to be said that it’s perhaps not the most original piece, but it is performed to a very high standard. Dungortheb have really crafted something great with Extracting Souls; this is a band with a wonderful heaviness to its sound and each song hits you like a tonne of bricks.
A particular highlight is Behind Your Eyelids, a track that starts off fairly sparsely before swiftly adding more and more elements, and by the time the vocals kick in, all you want to do is bang your head along to it – and that’s before you’re even faced with the rather magnificent guitar solo that happens even before the one-minute mark is reached! It also makes a most welcome return later on in the song too, and it just makes for a great listen in general.
Dungortheb have done well with Extracting Souls. It’s a safe release, that much is true, and it would be nice to see a bit more experimentation in future offerings from the band, but if you’re looking for good and well-written death metal, you can do no wrong with Dungortheb.
7/10
