Connect with Embrace Your Punishment
Listen to Embrace Your Punishment
In light of reviewing the last Hurakan release, it has come to my attention that the brutal death scene in France is even more expansive than I initially thought. That being said, today's release borders more on the slamming deathcore (think Vulvodynia or Ingested) spectrum more than anything. Embrace Your Punishment stands currently as a four-piece extreme metal outfit coming out of eastern France and, since their late 2000s inception, they've been mostly an independent artist.
Nameless King serves as the mistifying title for Embrace Your Punishment's latest release and sophomore full-length album (also being a follow up to their debut, Honor Before Glory). This new release was recently made available digitally through the band itself as well as Miasma Records and its thirteen tracks culminate into over 36 minutes of brutal metal content. Additionally, judging by the cover artwork, there may be a thematical tie to Greek mythology, with an almost Zeus-like figure front and center, but I digress...time to talk about the music.
It opens up with a short, but heavy intro track filled with slammy riffs, a mix of brutal death squeals and hardcore/beatdown screaming, and all the works. The song is an unexpectedly effective one packed with pretty much everything the album has in store for you in the next dozen tracks to come. The following song 'Human Warfare' is a straight-up brutal death composition with guitar licks similar to acts like Dying Fetus. It's also heavy on the gutturals all around here.
'Black Storm', as with a few other tracks such as 'Terror' & 'Ascension', ultimately came out to being my personal faves due to the inclusion of such guest vocal artists like Lukas from Stillbirth and Chris A. of Devourment. I really enjoy the way in which the guest spots come up here on Nameless King; and 'Fallen Kingdom' really demonstrates the old school aesthetic with the Internal Bleeding feature as well as the mixture of slamming riffs, odd production qualities and more. Overall, the song lengths are rather on the short side, which I thought was slightly a let down since a few of them really left me wanting to hear more.
The production all around is solid for the genre, with the guitars being meaty and sludgy to boot and every blast beat and double bass kick being audible just fine. I also thought that 'The Conqueror' is an interesting track to finish the album off, with a rather eclectic sound and surprising outro melody that caught me offguard. 'For The Victory' was another fave of mine for being a song that gave off Skinless/Misery Index vibes with the way the guitars sound and, really, the only gripes I had were the Analepsy guest spot, which I thought could've been done to more efficiency and energy...and two tracks being the self-titled song and 'Fear The Wolves' feeling like they could've been more fleshed out instead of these grindy, filler songs.
In all, I thought Nameless King was solid in more than a few aspects as far as the brutal death or brutal deathcore genres go. The album is mostly fast, slammy and guttural with a few nuances here and there that momentarily branch out to other types of sound. Embrace Your Punishment know what they're going for and that is pure brutality on the clear surface of it, bringing along a few familiar friends and notable faces and voices along the way.
Fave Tracks: 'Black Storm', 'Terror', 'Ascension', 'Fallen Kingdom', 'The Conqueror'
For Fans Of: Analepsy, Hurakan, Vulvodynia
**This release is available now here!**
---------------------
Support your fave artists and musicians!
-Review by: Dave Raffy
Musician, reviewer, fan & promoter
If you enjoyed this article, be sure to share it with others to help us grow. You can also like and follow us on the social media of your choice with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and support us on Patreon.