Jungle Rot – Kill On Command

In many weird ways I seem to think that the “Kings” of certain genres in metal don’t deserve to be labelled that at all. I won’t blast on anyone but we all can think of some bands that deserve that spot way before other bands. One of the bands I’m talking about, one of the bands that deserves to be hailed as kings of death metal, Jungle Rot. Spawning from the dirty graves of the death metal scene in 1995, they released a couple demos before the debut full-length “Slaughter The Weak” hit the streets heavy. Any band that releases records that speak volumes and are as classic as the ones Jungle Rot have released in the past, they deserve a fucking crown to be kings. Fast forward to 2011, Jungle Rot is back with a new record, “Kill On Command”, and a new label in Victory Records.

“Kill On Command” is the type of record that stands tall on it’s own, not to mention it’s filled with ten tracks of kick ass brutality. Running a little over the 35 minute mark, the record really does give you the sense of death metal is back in the hands of one of it’s leaders. I won’t lie, I was pretty nervous when I heard that Jungle Rot was signing to Victory Records. A label that is notorious for having bands change the way they sound, ruining bands and just putting out records that are shit. Don’t let the single/title track to this record fool you, “Kill On Command” is nothing like the rest of this beast of an album. “Kill On Command” gives you 1980’s thrash/death mixture that Sepultura gave us but with a little mix of old Cannibal Corpse. Another great thing about Jungle Rot is that even though they are death metal, they find no need to be extremely vulgar and gory with the lyrics. We don’t have any raping and eating the unborn fetus or killing small villages, only so we can burn the priest then bath in his young daughters blood.

“Kill To Command” just gives you that self-empowerment, take no prisons type of lyrics and it fits them perfectly. The riffs – great guitar work on this record but nothing we haven’t heard before from past bands. The good thing about the riffs are that they seem to just choke you with so much force your face will turn a different color. “Push Comes To Shove” is a great example of that, it’s raw, full of power and structured just right. Also, the solo work in this record is pretty sweet, you get a few of them right off the start of the record with a few sprinkled around the rest of it. Everything on “Kill On Command” sounds very well done, the vocals give you that warm blanket feeling of death metal while the drumming has it’s old school groove that original death metal had, thank god they didn’t gives us a record full of blastbeats. Another really weird thing about this record is that it kind of reverses it’s tracks. The record starts off with “Their Finest Hour” which is the longest track on the record but then ends with “Life Neglected”, the shortest track on the record. Not many bands do this but I can say that I like the layout of it. The one thing that I dislike about the new Jungle Rot record, yes I do dislike one thing, is the two or so breakdowns that seem to have creeped inside the walls. We’re not talking “slams” either people, we have full-on breakdowns, luckily only two sections have them through the whole record so I’m pleased to say, it didn’t effect my overall opinion.

With so many great releases from older death metal bands coming out this year, I’m excited that Jungle Rot didn’t get overlooked in the madness and hectic world we live in. Great bands are releasing stuff, Autopsy just released a brand new record that’s killer and the new Morbid Angel, can you say monstrous? Check this record out, I bet you that you won’t be disappointed in the end and it’s a great record to have in the collection, just for the simple fact that the album art is glorious as hell.

*If you believe me when I say great things about the new Morbid Angel record, you deserved to be punched in the mouth. Also, you might wanna read my review here.

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