Album Review: Death Toll 80k – Step Down (Svart Records)

Finnish grindcore/death metal band, Death Toll 80k released their latest album, Step Down on November 17th 2017 via Svart Records.

17 tracks long, coming in at 16 minutes…this is a bile-fuelled release that delivers aural insanity, music that careens sloppily from one idea to the next. Tracks that blast at you like a shotgun to the face. There is no order here, only chaos, As the vocals are screamed & screeched at you as if the singer just stubbed his toe on the corner of a coffee table.

Unlike a lot of deathgrind releases though, Death Toll 80k deliver something a little more unexpected here and that is riffs. Considering most tracks come in at under a minute the level of riffing going on here is seriously impressive. It makes the chaotic nature that little bit more palatable. It’s needed as the drumming is unrelenting in force & vocals are so unintelligible (mostly guttural screaming).

As soon as the feedback whine starts on Panopticon you know exactly what you’re getting here if you know your deathgrind music. Before you even know it you’re halfway through this vomit-inducing record.

One of the longest tracks on the album (2 minutes), Process is a real experience as Death Toll 80k show some raging rhythm amongst the constant barrage of noise. Often pointless noise.

I mean what is the point of a 30-second track like Repeating Failures or Lack of Perspective? It blends completely into the track that came before & the one that comes after. This happens several times throughout as there is so little variation in the style.

Truthfully you’d be hard pressed to really explain to an outsider just why this is good music. The constant roaring & screeching vocals loose a lot of impact as the album goes on & you can’t help but think this is probably just an album that can be used to annoy the neighbours or to shock Granny.

It’s not a completely lost cause though as tracks like the title track, Hydra & Silent Approval prove there is plenty of death groove within the band when they’re not just seeing how short they can make a track.

Death Toll 80k – Step Down Full Track Listing:

1. Panopticon
2. Walls
3. Trampled
4. Process
5. Repeating Failures
6. Abolish Fur Farms
7. Step Down
8. Statistics
9. Leeches
10. Lack Of Perspective
11. Cause / Avoid
12. Hydra
13. Diminish
14. Trickle Down
15. Binary
16. Silent Approval
17. Blame The Victim

Check it out yourself on Bandcamp & below via Apple Music. You can find out more about the band via Facebook.