Album Review: Unburial – The Dogs of War (Self Released)

Hailing from Spain, Unburial are blackened death metal band who recently released their second album entitled, The Dogs of War. Describing themselves as ‘ancient blackened death metal inspired in the Classic Roman Era.

“Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war”

With that infamous line, Unburial get the metal juices flowing for their new album, The Dogs of War. A bombastic intro leads into a foaming torrent of death metal with blackened undertones. A beast of a start comes in the form of Triumvirate – Ashes of the Empire. Vocals on par with anything grind can put out with a blasting effort from the drums and guitars, it’s a strong start.

A high tempo mixed with uncontrolled levels of nasty heaviness is what keeps the album ticking along. Alesia – Swords in the Dark, Pharsalia – A New King Rise and Pompey – Between Illusory Mists deliver crushing death metal heavy rhythm as well as tricky guitar riffing. While Unburial aren’t breaking out anything substantially unique here, they’re certainly giving the genre big-guns a run for its money.

It’s exciting stuff thanks to the wonderful inclusion of black metal elements such as on Ides of March – So Imperator Caesar Rest but it would be nice if the drums weren’t so prominent in the mix. Here particularly, the heavy-handedness of it is all to prevalent and you’ll find yourself trying to ignore them so you can hear the guitars better.

Thankfully the overall quality of the album shines through. It culminates in one last ditch effort by Unburial to shake you to your core with Tereus – Tomb of his Son. A quality finish (excluding Mirror of Cronus which is just soft guitar melody as an outro) that gets the neck muscles working overtime with a frenzied head-banging finish.

Unburial – The Dogs of War Full Track Listing:

I – The Hands of War
II – Triumvirate – Ashes of the Empire
III – Alesia – Swords in the Dark
IV – Rubicon – Alea Iacta Est
V – Pharsalia – A New King Rise
VI – Pompey – Between Illusory Mists
VII – Ides of March – So Imperator Caesar Rest
VIII – Havoc – The Dogs of War
IX – Tereus – Tomb of his Son
X – Mirror of Cronus

You can pick up the album now via Bandcamp and find out more about Unburial via Facebook.