Swapping cadaver meat onto freshly the suffering, limb-for-limb spliced from shock-drained victim to victim in order to sate their bizarre appetite for experimental agony German thrashing death metal trio EVOKED might appear barbaric in the midst of the rush of raw, vile ‘old school’ bloodied attack on their latest mLP but we should not mistake sadistic violence for bluntness when such a surgical level of precision is applied. In fact ‘Immoral Arts‘ get the classic sound of late 80’s/early 90’s death metal exactly right, as is to be expected from a group of folks at it for just over ten years now, as they go on sticking to what they do best in terms of ripping riff after riff in the best tradition. Thousands of bands talk the right language in this sense but they are few and far between who can make such a neck-throttling diabolic feat of it with such brutal-yet-adept menace in hand at every turn. Short and potent in its familiar strike at ripping death noise, the appeal of this short record should speak for itself from the first cut and louder still through the last.

Evoked formed back in 2013 by way of folks who could trace their origins back to the mid-2000’s Detmold and Blomberg area thrash metal scenery wherein founding members guitarist/vocalist Bonesaw and drummer Artilleratör played in Mania and Genocide respectively. From their first demo tape (‘Return of the Dead‘, 2014) one could easily grasp the intended style of post-‘Scream Bloody Gore‘ era death metal intended along the lines of early Morgoth or the thrash metal inspired cut of Pestilence‘s step from demo tapes through ‘Mallevs Maleficarvm‘. The most notable difference felt as they’d stepped from demo to their first official release, the ‘Lifeless Allurement‘ (2016) EP was a more pronounced bass guitar presence as they’d added a third member somewhere in the interim. They’d signed with F.D.A. Records at that point and eventually caught my interest with their debut full-length album (‘Ravenous Compulsion‘, 2019) which I’d reviewed favorably upon release noting its strong classic thrash metal influences and how that’d translate to a most classic ‘old school’ death metal sound.

While I was a fan of that debut album at the time it took some distance to eventually recognize Evoked‘s death-thrashing sound as more standout than I’d given credit. At this point returning to that record today while considering how nuclear hot ‘Immoral Arts‘ is as a follow-up release five years beyond the last I definitely appreciate the die-hard standard of ‘Ravenous Compulsion‘. That said, these five songs and ~21 minutes of noisome thrashing riffs and late 80’s Van Drunen style barks reek of pure underground death metal revivalism as I’d experience it throughout the first decade of the 2000’s, expertly recreating the rabid and ripping death metal style and standard of late 80’s/early 90’s death metal with a clear point of inspiration in mind.

Ear-shredding guitar tones, machine gunned thrash grooves, and a general mid-paced punisher level of speed crushing through ‘Immoral Arts‘ doesn’t drastically change anything about Evoked‘s style. They’re not the type to fling a hundred solos per song so much as present frequent tempo shifts and expert-level riffcraft in surprisingly high-quality and coherent stretches, rhythms willing to step all the way into death-thrashing mania whenever a piece calls for a clip of speed. The title track (“Immoral Arts”) and “Behind the Eyes” are probably the best songs to showcase just how well they’ve mastered this riff-after-riff style and their adept yet brutal striding from point-to-point in these abrupt but sensical threads of rhythm guitar mastery. Some might show to to a band like this and find style points that are familiar but really the main event is the riffs and these folks deliver front to back here in a way which one-ups some of the stuff they’ve done in the past. What might otherwise catch the attention of ‘old school’ fandom is the render here, which is far more raw than expected.

These folks come from the same general thrashing underground that groups like Vulture do (see: Beer Pressure) and have frequently employed Marco Brinkmann of Hellforge Studio, who provides the final pass on the mix and master here, but this time around they’ve worked with Wilt guitarist and engineer Marko Sundermann for the recording. While the result of their collective efforts was ear-crushing stuff to start the electrical hiss of the guitar tone and general loudness of ‘Immoral Arts‘ gives it a live wire type of presence, nothing too polished and nothing too devoutly ‘old school’ in terms of faux compression or whatever but a raw and blazing sound which’d felt like a drill to the temple to start. Where I felt this sound shined most was probably “A Nameless Grave” as the main piece on this record to feature a pronounced thrashing break, a more pronounced sense of space given to the bass guitar, and a dive-bombed solo or two all of which were emphasized by the brutally hard sound of the album otherwise. It is appropriate for this style in the best way, anyhow.

As the story goes with ‘old school’ death metal intent and the underground voice upheld… perfectionism and self-conscious ambition tends to suck the maniac (read: thrashing) spirit out of pure death metal after a few releases. No such phenomenon factors into the work of Evoked who still work blasts (“Behind the Eyes”, “Immoral Arts”) and thrashing breaks into the ten riffs-per-song level of violence committed herein. Also, I think it is worth noting that this second gory collaboration with Timon Kokott for their cover art works out well once again as the sadistic torture depicted matches the classic death metal brutality these folks bring to every song herein. The final result is above average across the board, certainly the type of classicist death metal I’m always drawn into for repeat listens, though with consideration for the general public’s ear this will read as both raw as fuck and dense with ideas too powerful for the everyday wimp-brained ghoul. A high recommendation.

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