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CENTINEX
Redeeming Filth

Agonia (2014)
Rating: 8.5/10

Ferocious dogs of war Centinex are back! It’s been eight years since any activity as the Swedish group disbanded in 2006, but now they have broken out from their musty coffins to batter us once again, and what a welcome return it is.

Redeeming Filth offers ten brutal death metal outbursts showcasing the talents of founding bassist Martin Schulman (Demonical, Interment), who is joined by drummer Kennet Englund (Interment, Dellamorte) – originally a member of Centinex between 1999 and 2003 – and new acquisitions; vocalist Alexander Högbom (October Tide, Spasmodic, Vulturyon) and guitarist Sverker Widgren (Demonical, Diabolical).

Redeeming Filth is the ninth episode in the career of Centinex, and it’s an album that is keen to transport us back to the old school death metal scene. The press release for this album states that the record is “influenced and inspired by the early 90s classic Florida scene” and “picks up the spirit from the 1992 debut Subconscious Lobotomy”, and I’d tend to agree with this bold statement.

This is very much heavyweight death metal of varying pace, but comfortable in whichever guise it takes. With the opening track ‘When Bodies Are Deformed’ it’s a case of battening down the hatches and prepare for all that aggression that has been pent up for so long. Alexander Högbom gives the impression that he’s been with Centinex for a long time; his loose, phlegm-ridden cough is one that barks in belligerent fashion over the sturdy axe-work and juddering drum jolts.

Thankfully, this is death metal that doesn’t exist by ripping off the old gods, but instead it makes a hefty nod. I’m also relieved that in spite of being Swedish that the quartet hasn’t simply resorted to aping that old chainsaw-styled Entombed guitar sound; so what we get are faster moments of rancid gloom melted with equally foetid slower segments of damp doom. This is nowhere more apparent than on the ghoulish strains of ‘Moist Purple Skin’ which revels in its slower aches of sickness and sin, ballooned by that juggernaut guitar sound and thunderous drum quake before returning back to that effortless shudder of pacey groove.

The short but effective ‘Death Glance’ begins in typical old school death metal fashion with that lumbering air of menace before upping its tempo in sickly fashion to become bolstered by that foundation of booming drum and dense riffage. And this is the theme which Centinex follows throughout; a formula which has worked for so many over the years in that combination of mouldy mid-tempo madness and groovier, aggressive streaks.

Of the ten tracks spat out, one can hardly ignore the devastating chug of ‘Stone Of Choice’ with its gravelly vocal delivery, while ‘Bloodraze’ approaches with aching gloom before finally finding its pace of choice of raging drums and frantic guitar melody, all the while being splattered by those barking orders.

Of course, there is still that Swedish element to all of the tracks but it doesn’t handicap the band or make them in any way generic. While hordes of bands are suffering at the hands of originality these veterans are merely doing what they’ve always done; churning out top-notch death metal that reaches its vile peak with the brooding darkness of ‘Dead, Buried And Forgotten’ and album closer ‘Eye Sockets Empty’, which goes for the throat as a monstrous groove from the grave.

For those of you who doubted that Centinex could return with a vengeance, Redeeming Filth is proof that the old ones are the best.

Neil Arnold

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