Bandcamp Eighteen years and seven albums in, Arroganz are not interested in subtlety. Death Doom Punks, the latest from the Cottbus extreme-metal crew, is exactly what its title threatens: death and black metal filth dragged to doom tempos when it wants weight, then thrown at thrash and crust-punk speed when it wants blood, all delivered with a sneer. “Anti-Ideology”, “Spirit Arsonist”, “Earth’s Final Dose”, these are songs with their fists already up.
As a piece of playing it is genuinely formidable. The riffs are precise even at their most saturated, the downtuned guitars carving readable shapes out of the density, and the band move between crawling death-doom and blasting black-thrash without losing the thread. When they slow down the weight is real, and the punk economy keeps most tracks from overstaying their welcome. There is craft here, the kind that only comes from a band this many records deep.
What wears it down is the master. Death Doom Punks is mixed for maximum loudness, every track pushed flat against the ceiling, the drums edited and sample-reinforced into a sterile click, the dynamics pressed out until the whole thing becomes a single relentless slab. In short bursts that is thrilling. Across nine tracks it fatigues, the songs starting to blur into one another for want of air. Tellingly, the closer “Spirit Arsonist” is the one that breathes, an earthy, almost rehearsal-room rawness that drops the brickwall, and it is the most alive thing here.
Death Doom Punks is a strong, vicious record from a band with nothing left to prove, undercut by a production that mistakes loudness for heaviness. Taken in halves rather than in one sitting it hits a lot harder. The riffs deserve more room than the master gives them.
Death Doom Punks is modern extreme metal, death and black metal crossed with doom weight and thrash-punk speed, mixed for maximum loudness. The downtuned guitars stay readable thanks to tight mid control, the bass is a growling sub-foundation, and the drums are heavily edited and sample-reinforced into a clicky, sterile attack. The dominant trait is brickwall compression: nearly every track sits flat against the ceiling, which is punishing in short bursts and fatiguing across a full nine-track runtime. The closer “Spirit Arsonist” breaks the pattern with an earthy, un-limited rehearsal-room rawness and organic drums, and it is the track that breathes best.
Standout tracks: Spirit Arsonist, Anti-Ideology
