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SEVEN DOORS
Feast Of The Repulsive Dead

Redefining Darkness (2023)
Rating: 8/10

And so the healthy layers of the UK death metal scene are made all the more sturdy by the arrival of the long-awaited debut full-length opus from Cornwall’s Seven Doors. Feast Of The Repulsive Dead is the work of multi-instrumentalist Ryan Wills, who also features for Wolves In Exile, Deadwood Lake, Born Undead and Blood Rage.

In 2021 Seven Doors released the impressive The Gates Of Hell EP, and since then there has been a grave-full of singles released and this new boulder to the brain continues the horror theme and musical extremity.

After a short synth-based and typically 80s worship intro entitled ‘A Quiet Night In The Cemetery’ – supplied by Slasher Dave of Acid Witch – Wills gets down to business, plying us with a title track that whines with suspenseful tones before chugging in monolithic combination with grave diggers shovel. Blasts of speed interject with those brain-quaking grinds as Ryan gutturally commands the dead to rise from their soiled pits, and that is where the tone is set.

‘Stalked, Strangled And Stabbed’ has a fluid, aggressive rolling to its tempo, and those drums groove in tandem with the mid-tempo oozing. This is not a case of dank old school worship, there are contemporary streaks throughout and Wills also toys with the more aggressive, less organic mid-to-late 90s style of the genre while also nodding towards, say, Massacre, but it remains hefty and infectious.

‘The Morbid Mortician’ is one of the finer examples of Ryan’s ability to tap into a dissonant guitar tone while employing huge slabs of atmospheric melody. Another favourite on offer is ‘The Hack Shack’ with its pace and dribbling bass hinting towards Cannibal Corpse, as do various other numbers. But there are also nods towards Rogga Johansson, particularly in Ryan’s coughs. This really is a mature offering that maintains a guttural catchiness throughout its duration, and culminates with the monstrous growls and howls of ‘Eve Of The Apocalypse’.

The whole album is a ruthless yet accessible romp through the crypts of everything we know and love about pulverising melodious death metal, and Ryan Wills should be praised for not only raising the dead but providing such a guttural soundtrack to their lumbering traipse.

Neil Arnold

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