Images of Violence
Cadaverous Recomposition

March 2005
Released: 2004, Deepsend Records
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: Waspman

Fresh death metal is something hard to come by these days, so if you can’t find any, go for something putrid and rotting, something like Images of Violence. Texas’ newest addition to the bloated death metal corpse, Images of Violence worship death metal from the old school, as in the true classic shit like 80’s Napalm Death, Carcass, and their foul ilk. Combine that with the band’s equally nasty grind roots, and you’ve a got a recipe for some punishing music.

Blasting forth with the vicious “Voracious Devouring”, the band hacks and slashes their way through a mere 18 minutes of the dirtiest and yet most competent death/grind I’ve heard in a long time. All of the integral ingredients for great death metal are here, from the disgustingly low guttural grunts Zig, to the appropriately dirty production values and buzzsaw guitars. What’s more, some of this stuff is fucking catchy! To wit, the central riff of “Spontaneous Act of Selfish Depression” has been playing in my head for a week now.

There may be nothing new here, but just like power metal fans are accepting of new bands that don’t really expand on what the masters have done, there will always be fans willing to give a band like Images of Violence (can’t say I’m big on that name) a good home. My bet (and hope!) is that they’ll be on tour with fellow heads-down-death-metal-to-the-end warriors like Incantation and their beloved Napalm Death in the near future.