World Under Blood – Tactical

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Formed by CKY guitarist Deron Miller and joined by Divine Heresy/Morbid Angel/Hate Eternal drummer Tim Yeung among others, World Under Blood have been around for several years but it has only been now that the band have been able to release debut album Tactical. The band play a rather American variant of melodic death metal, but Tim Yeung’s heritage with some of death metal’s more brutal outfits definitely shines through from the start. Tactical is blastbeats a plenty, with the drums rapidly and brutally smashing into the foreground. Honestly this is a bit jarring, as all the melody and guitar work quickly feels overwhelmed by such overt and prominent drum work. There are some good tunes underneath the barrage of snares and bass-kicks, a few Amon Amarth-like guitar riffs, some genuinely tasty lead guitars and a good mix of very soft, smooth vocal-lines and varied death metal growling. It is just a shame that the album feels almost produced to be a showcase for the (admittedly stellar) drum talents of Yeung. As such melodeath fans who happen to be big drum-enthusiasts might get a real kick out of it; everyone else will probably appreciate the talents involved, but will be overly aware that this could have been produced a lot better, either by toning down the drums, or amping up the guitars and squeezing out the melodic elements. A bit of a mess.

Written by James Donovan
More: 2011, Albums, Death Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, World Under Blood