deathbound non compos mentis

Released: 25 January 2010 Label: Dynamic Arts Records

I suspect that Finnish grind-merchants Deathbound are still chiefly known by most people for their 2005 album Doomsday Comfort having been the last project worked on by Nasum mainman Mieszko Talarczyk before his untimely death in the Christmas tsunami disaster of 2004.

That’s a great pity too because there’s a lot here to like for fans of bands like the aforementioned Nasum and Rotten Sound (who Deathbound actually share a drummer with) as well as older Napalm Death and even fans more d-beat influenced old school death metal bands like Master, Vomitory and even early Entombed should get a kick out of Non Compos Mentis. As you may have guessed by the bands I’ve just mentioned Deathbound don’t push any kind of musical boundaries whatsoever but sometimes you just need thirty minutes or so of aural violence and for those times Deathbound are perfect.

The band have a simply huge guitar sound, vocalist Kai Jaakkola has a brutal voice that is reminiscent of Nicke Anderson’s performance on Entombed’s legendary Clandestine album and the songs are all short and straight to the point. While nothing’s particularly memorable for long after the CD stops playing there’s enough catchiness and grooves to keep it enjoyable while it is on and just enough variation between the songs to stop the fourteen tracks blending into each other and the mix of musical brutality and socially aware lyrics should make sure that they appeal to fans of both old school death metal and grindcore/hardcore punk.

by Neil Woodfin