Review by Vladimir on March 9, 2024.

Hello creeps! Once again, I return to take a look at another split release between two contemporary death metal bands, this time I’ll be looking at the Tales From The Crypt which contains songs by the Swedish band Abscession from their demo Death Incarnate and songs by the German band Denomination from their "When Life Ends" demo. 

We enter the 'Land Of The Damned' with the first track by Abscession, setting the stage for the death metal massacre that awaits. From the very get-go, it is pure Swedish death metal attack with the infamous buzzsaw HM-2 distortion pedal guitar sound and ghoulish growling vocals that provide an awesome throwback to the golden age of death metal during the 90’s, hitting hard like hammer in the head while also throwing in a couple of evil and atmospheric death metal like the ones on the third track 'Litany Of The Serpent God'. As a conclusion to their split participation, they finish it off with the cover of Entombed’s 'To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth', which also shines in its delightfully Black Sabbath styled glory like on the original. The second half goes to Denomination, who also leave their mark with the HM-2 distortion pedal style like Abscession, while opting for a more wicked approach to their songs which have slightly more tremolo picking riffs and tempo changes. Luckily, they continue where Abscession left off on this split release by rocking out in similar death metal fashion, keeping the game strong and ongoing till the very end. The only difference with Denomination is that they close their part with a live version of their track 'Magic Circle', while still giving this banger a solid conclusion. 

Both bands manage to provide some awesome bangers with very standard oldschool death metal songwriting that dominates on the entire release, with a perfect combination of two bands in similar styles who keep the stylistic consistency at a maximum. Hardly is there a second where one band outmatches the other in terms of their musical output, so there is always a strong balance between both Abscession and Denomination that are always in their prime throughout every song. What caught my attention about this split release is the particular choice of title that references the cult classic horror anthology series Tales From The Crypt, which in some ways does make this split release look like one awesome collection of gruesome tales told through death metal. 

Tales From The Crypt split album has certainly pleased my appetite for some good oldschool banging and I have to say that both bands managed to leave a strong impression on this release. If you are on the lookout for some awesome compilations or split releases that contain works of awesome death metal that sounds like it came straight from the 90’s, look no further than the Tales From The Crypt. 

Rating: 8.4 out of 10