Funeral Leech is a New York City-based death/doom outfit who recently dropped an wicked piece of work in the form of Death Meditation, their debut LP. Listening to the material on the record, I was transported back to 1992 when I wrote a death metal zine called Extremities and was soaking up all-things Incantation, Purtenance, and Asphyx.
There's so many delicious guitar riffs to devour throughout the album that every subsequent listen seemingly reveals another one to dig into. Drummer Lucas Anderson also provides lead vocals, and the dude spits straight bile on tracks like "Statues" and "Morbid Transcedence."
Travis Bacon's production on Death Meditation should also be noted for its virtuosic balance of crushing bass, thick guitars, massive drums, and blood-curdling vocals in the final mix:
Lucas (who is also a contributor to No Echo) was nice enough to send us a list of 5 bands that helped introduce him to death metal as a teenager. Check out his picks below, and hit the buy link to get a copy of Death Meditation after that.
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Deviated Instinct
Crust and death metal go hand in hand. I was introduced to bands like Bolt Thrower through all the early stenchcore bands like Amebix and Hellbastard just from seeing old flyers of them all playing together. Crust is so heavily influenced from metal, that it only makes sense that those worlds collide.
Bolt Thrower
Bolt Thrower might be the first death metal band I ever heard, and I fell in love. I found out about them through crust bands listing them as influences in zines and seeing old photos of them wearing anarcho punk shirts. Right up my alley.
At the Gates
Slaughter of the Soul is the catchiest death metal album of all time, as a young crust punk I was into Skitsystem and Disfear and one of the people working at [NYC record store] Generation Records recommended At the Gates to me. I picked up a old copy of Slaughter of the Soul, and from there i got into their earliest straightforward death metal stuff.
Extreme Noise Terror
Extreme Noise Terror was the first punk/crust band I heard that was on Earache Records, so that opened my world to a lot of the roster on the label as well.
Carcass
Listening to crust brought me to grindcore and grindcore brought me to death metal. Carcass was the perfect bridge to that.
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Death Meditation is available now via Carbonized Records and is available on both vinyl and digital.
Funeral Leech on social media: Instagram | Twitter
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Tagged: at the gates, bolt thrower, carcass, deviated instinct, extreme noise terror, funeral leech
