MAUL
MAUL “In The Jaws of Bereavement”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Fargo, ND is getting itself a nice little death metal scene, with PHOBOPHILIC and GORGATRON also hailing from the home of monster blizzards and bloody wood chippers. MAUL finds itself in the position of many bands in the now bloated DM realm…too good to write off, not quite good enough to reach the next level.
There are certainly points of interest here. The band seems to draw a little more influence from sludge metal and hardcore than many others. Hell, the track “Stuck, Stomped And Smeared” could be an EYEHATEGOD or CROWBAR track with just a little imagination. They tend to keep things on the simple side, which results in riffs both profound and tedious. “With Each Voracious Lick” is super downtuned knuckle-dragging slam with putrid vocals to match. But with the combo “An Alluring Deceit”/”Midwest Death”, there’s low key melody and a genuinely sorrowful feeling to raise your eyebrows and give a clue that MAUL may have more than caveman death metal up its sleeve.
Generally, though, that’s the approach they take. A nice fat production job helps their cause and I bet this band is hotter than a pistol live, with easy riffs and grooves. But I just heard the new BLOOD INCANTATION and that’s the kind of death metal that’s going to raise the bar, not MAUL, who are poised between the apex of BLOOD INCANTATION and the gaping pit of SANGUISUGABOGG.