Listening to Gorefest, I am reminded of the times I’ve gone marshmucking in a Chesapeake salt marsh. If you’ve never had the good fortune to encounter one, a salt marsh is a wide expanse of soft, smelly mud overlain by a few inches of clear water and populated by creatures like blue crabs. Trying to cross one walking upright is nearly impossible; the mud is so soft you’ll sink to your knees or even your waist in places, and thick enough that trying to move through it is an exercise in futility. La Muerte, the band’s first effort after reforming in 2004, has a very similar sonic effect, with a steadily solid bass line over which riffs are permitted to rise, punctuated by solos of varying speeds and drumming that rises up in the mix to help push things along.

The mention of mud is not an accidental one. The production is far from crystal clear, letting riffs, especially lower-range ones, blend together, creating an effect very similar to that found on Death’s Spiritual Healing. The comparison is helped by the fact that the bass plays a very similar role, steadily driving the album along, and the fact that de Koeijer uses a style of death metal vocals similar to Schuldiner on Spiritual Healing, a more sonorous grunt than true death growl. The vocals aren’t going to appeal to everyone – while it’s nice that they’re fairly intelligible, I’m left wanting for something, either that evil back-of-the-throat rasp that makes most death metal so delightfully nasty or just a greater level of distortion. However, de Koeijer is good at what he does, delivering a powerful performance, and the rest is really just personal preference.

Most of La Muerte follows an uncomplicated pattern. Midtempo grooving riffs are the order of the day here, with the same steadily chugging bass line reappearing on several songs. The solos are fairly precise, rising above the muddiness to grab the listener’s attention in a very welcome manner. Ed Warby provides some excellent drumming, especially on The New Gods. The album flows well, though that’s more a function of the muddiness and lack of distinction between songs than anything else.

The album does have a few points of distinction. There are a few particularly catchy riffs (When The Dead Walk The Earth, The New Gods), although the fact that they’re more easily distinguishable from the rest of the morass than the riffs on the other songs probably helps quite a bit in making them stand out. Rogue State also veers into very strange territory about halfway through, as someone, perhaps de Koeijer, launches into a short spoken word passage that follows the previously established vocal rhythm. It’s a strange break that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense musically, although content-wise it fits with the slightly socio-political nature of the rest of the album. The last track, La Muerte, is a slower instrumental that dips very slightly into doom territory and closes quite well.

A solid comeback, if not one fated to go down in the annals of metal history, La Muerte is a grooving, no-frills approach to death metal. No keys, no sing-a-long choruses, no clean vocals (except for Rogue State, but I’m not entirely sure what the hell that was, anyway). Although it ends up feeling a bit like a poor man’s Spiritual Healing at times, it’s got enough merit to stand on its own.