I see most fanboys online being unquestioning towards their favorites newest output. Albums get bought blindly and get listened to until they “finally click” – which often translates to flaws being forcefully overlooked. Believing a band to be infallible might seem like it makes being a fan easier, but doesn´t this diminish the achievements the band accrued while being mere mortals? Because of this, I get more and more hesitant whenever one of my heroes release new music. Dying Fetus, at this point, have more than one masterpiece under their belt. I believe Reign Supreme to be one of the very rare flawless albums with how it manages to contrast techy Neoclassical wankery with slamming barbarity and followup Wrong One to Fuck With is not far behind. If that album had one flaw, it was the length and how front-loaded it was, but it felt like an otherwise worthy successor to what I consider their magnum opus. Make Them Beg For Death arrives 6 years later and I am glad for it, as Dying Fetus have proven all they need to prove in their career and I´d rather the band takes the time they need to craft a good album. At the same time, this new album is considerably more compact than its predecessor.
Time has left a mark on Dying Fetus of course and the time between the two albums saw some important developments. Not only the pandemic with its catastrophic consequences on the music industry, but also the rise of Slam to a previously unparalleled “mainstream” success (something many would consider similarly catastrophic). Dying Fetus have toured with more mainstream oriented Slam acts in the meantime and I believe that the positive audience reaction to the most Slam oriented sections of their songs has had an influence on the Marylanders’ songwriting. The soloing is overall less frantic and less melodic in the Neoclassical sense. The band still knows how to turn on a dime like the good Hardcore boys they are, but the material maintains its brutality for much longer and songs seem to spiral towards their main Slam part, just as other Slam bands like Ingested would frequently do it.
There is nothing wrong with this approach, of course, but it removes part of what made Dying Fetus so special. The Hardcore attitude mingled with an almost progressive and technical approach in a way that few bands could match. Overall, Dying Fetus are good – even great sometimes – at what they are doing here, but I am skeptical if the band can match these modern Slammers at their own game. While I am somewhat disappointed with what the album has turned out to be, I also owe it to the band to review the album they actually made and there is still too much stellar material to consider it bad. “Feast of Ashes”, with probably the best solo on the record, immediately trading moods with the grindiest track on the album, “Throw them in the Van” shows that Dying Fetus still knows how it’s done. That track in particular demonstrates that the band has not forgotten its roots and a quick grinder like that is something the band would’ve likely eschewed on their last two outings. At the end of the day, even a Dying Fetus record that is a bit more by the numbers and plays by the “rules” of the genre is still better than what many bands churn out week after week.
