Customer Reviews

Last Gasp

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Let me get it out of the way here, yes, Impaled worship Carcass but don't let that stop you! This is a great grind/melodic death album that has it's similarities (as do most Impaled albums) to the gods of gore but Impaled play so frighteningly well that it would be criminal to write them off as clones.

Admittedly, I haven't listened to the these SF gore maniacs since "Dead Remain Dead" and I doubt that there has been much evolution but I really enjoyed the "Last Gasp" as it's full of catchy riffs, great musicianship and the dual grind vocals that I'm fond of. If the nasty cover are horrifies you or you don't like you lyrics clever and nasty, avoid this. But, if you love melodic grind and have SICK sense of humor, this is certainly for you.

Impaled are in the unfair position of being seen as at once too melodically-inclined by death metal purists and too brutal and sickening by the In Flames/Opeth/whatever crowd. Others just see them as a joke band because they have a sense of humor and evoke the dumbass charm of Italian splatter films.

Whatever the case, by now calling them just a clone band is a lazy accusation. Instead of plainly imitating Carcass, what they do is integrate the NWoBHM melodic sensibilities of the unrealized "sellout album" Heartwork with the dirtiness, rhythmic substance and thorny dissonance of the band's early stuff. The balance of brutality and catchy dirge gives the nastier parts an emotive center and sense of perspective, something that brutal death metal and "melodic death metal" alike tend to lack.

Anyway, this particular album has a few good cuts, but to be quite honest it feels like they just had to put something out when they only had a few really solid tracks up their sleeve. Has its moments of gory grandeur, but not quite as easy to sit through as Mondo Medicale or the stupidly titled Death After Life due to the level of filler.