The vocalist of Chile's Ancestral (the death metal one, not the black metal one) gave me a review copy of the band's self-released full-length, Asinfonias Para Cerdos. I'm pretty sure that's "Symphonies for Pigs", so it sounds like a good idea to me.

Any time you hear mention of Suffocation, there's usually also some comment about how many bands try to copy them. Ancestral does a lot of that. It's a brutal death metal assault from start to finish, full of plenty of slam-style breakdowns. For those of you who are easily confused, death metal with breakdowns is absolutely NOT deathcore. Deathcore is just metalcore simplified and played extra heavy. Ancestral is unadulterated slam death.

The vocals are of particular note, with the deep guttural death growl as well as the occasional pig-squealing twist. The bass is audible (especially on "Psicopatia Terrenal"), and the guitars are heavy, with the odd solo here and there. Since my review copy was at 128 Kbps, I'm not entirely comfortable talking about the drums (the first to suffer with low bit rates) or the quality of the production.

I don't quite understand why they put the "Carmina Burana" style intro on "Kratos", and I could have done without the WTF moment that is "Am Kuifykeche". Other than that, this is as pure and honest as it gets. Can you tell the songs apart? Maybe not, but it's fun.

The Verdict: Sometimes, all you need is some slamming death metal, and you could do a lot worse that Ancestral. They'd be a perfect fit for Sevared, or even Relapse. Someone needs to pick them up.