Album Review: Slaughterday – “Dread Emperor” (Death Metal)

Written by Kep

Lemme tell you, there are few things I love in this world more than a good riff. Two good riffs, maybe. Hearing a particularly tasty set of them at the right moment can change the tack of my entire day. Perhaps that’s the reason for my affinity for the music of Slaughterday, the German duo that’s been cranking out good ol’ death metal full of well-crafted riffage since 2010. They don’t get the credit they’re due, if you ask me; with a discography already standing four quality full-lengths and three EPs strong, it’s a wonder we don’t hear them praised more frequently. Maybe Dread Emperor will be the album that breaks them through into the greater metal consciousness, and if so it’ll because of how many great riffs these guys write. 

Their lineup of guitarist/bassist Jens Finger and drummer/vocalist Bernd Reiners unchanged since the project’s inception, Slaughterday has achieved that which is relatively rare in music: utter consistent reliability. Damn good riffs and quality, uncomplicated songwriting feature across every thing they’ve released. There’s no need to wonder what this album is bringing to the table, because it’s the same thing they’ve been bringing for years. Even the programming of their records is consistent: eight or nine tracks, each in the four- to six-minute range, plus a cover to close things out. The one real deviation? Last year’s EP Terrified, a tribute to Repulsion and their seminal record Horrified, which featured original tracks in the style of the grind legends (and featured delightfully homage-y cover art). 

Dread Emperor does add one new wrinkle to the Slaughterday album formula: an instrumental intro track. Luckily, “Enthroned” isn’t any of that cliché atmospheric nonsense; it’s a grandiose stage-setter, with a repeated majestic riff that reminds the listener that old school death is a dear friend of doom. The mood properly established, “Obliteration Crusade” breaks out in headlong fashion. It’s a killer first taste of what’s to come on Dread Emperor because it serves as a whirlwind tour of the elements and songwriting tricks that make up their sound. You’ve got a classic ass-whipping thrashing death riff, harmonized guitars heralding a swinging bruiser of a chorus, a blistering solo that dovetails back into the harmonized pre-chorus line, a bridge of fierce tremolo work over running footwork from the drums, and finally an arrival back on the material that opened the track. It’s smart and efficient stuff, workmanlike in its willingness to give you what you want without any unexpected twists, done with the sort of veteran ability and savvy that elevates. 

It’s just good fucking death metal, period. Riffs that get any metalhead’s head banging abound start to finish, and these guys know how to deliver them to your earholes in a way that you know and love. When Finger lays down an expansive, melodic solo out of the main guitar line of “Rapture of Rot”, and then everything else drops away so we can get four bars of the bruising new triplet riff before the full band kicks in? We know what that feels like and have a good idea where it’s going, which is why it’s so damn satisfying to experience it done so well. The swaggery opening groove of “The Forsaken Ones”, and the way it just makes sense with the new tempo passage that follows. The thrashing romp that careens through the last moments of “Astral Carnage”. The racing melodic line in the chorus of “Subconscious Pandemonium” and the way it slips comfortably into and out of wrecking ball swinging triplets. The grimy funk in the measured main riff of the title track, opening to dark majesty with eldritch tendril licks waving like flags over ramparts in the chorus. None of this is new—hell, it’s not even really interpreted in a new way—but it’s all done so goddamn well that it lands effectively every time, and those moments bring you back for more. 

All in all, this is just good, competent death metal: well-written, well-performed, well-produced. Reiner’s stentorian roar is a powerful presence and his work behind the kit is precise and driving, while treading the doomier spaces particularly well also. Finger’s axework sounds full and suitably harsh, making thunderous chords and vicious tremolos sound equally great, and he makes particularly good use of harmony in his numerous solos. His bass is a mostly unobtrusive, supportive presence, but there are some nice spots where the unison tandem of bass and guitar makes for some particularly heavy grooves—there’s a great one in the back half of the title track, for example. 

THE BOTTOM LINE

Dread Emperor marks the fifth full-length outing for Slaughterday, and it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from the heavily underrated old school death duo: uncomplicated but smartly-written tunes, highly enjoyable and full of great goddamn riffs to bang your head to. It’s a damn good listen.