Norway’s Blood Red Throne is back with another murder filled, bloody offering of American inspired Death Metal. Everyone from the debut is back except Freddy B on drums, who has been replaced by the equally talented Espen Antonsen, which is a good thing because the band just wouldn’t be the same without Mr. Hustler handling vocals and Tchort and Død’s song writing. Though Affiliated With The Suffering still suffers (no pun intended) from the same things that brought down Monument Of Death ever so slightly, it is nevertheless a very enjoyable release.

The main thing that drew me to Blood Red Throne originally was the ease of listing they present with their song writing and musical style. They are not overly technical or fancy, but they are straight to the point and unrelenting; and that’s the appeal. It’s not even that the band is simple or dummied down, it’s just simply that from the first second of music you’re instantly hooked and you never lose interest (at least I didn’t). The band by no means slows down; yet, they don’t get repetitive which is a feat in itself. Once again, the band never gets too technical but they change their riffs often and more importantly their style. We heard it on Monument Of Death and Blood Red Throne has carried over their song writing sensibility of combining distinct styles from various Death Metal bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, and Suffocation into a contained meshing of each bands style. Some tracks are more Cannibal Corpse sounding such as Bleeders Lament and others are a combination of everything, Mercy Killings. Granted, the band is kind of repeating themselves from their last CD but I will say that this time around the riffs are even more catchy and the songs are even more crushing (I haven’t head banged so much since, well, Monument Of Death). Blood Red Throne have hit on a winning formula and they improved just enough to still make this CD, for the most part, fresh- though picky Death Metal listeners may want more experimentation.

Other portions of the bands sound have been largely untouched, including the production which consists of thick-toned guitars, and semi-audible bass. The vocals are still nothing but deep growls, however, the lyrics, most of the time, rhyme really well and it makes the phrasing quite catchy, invoking some of Cannibal Corpse's finer moments early on in their career. Unfortunately, the vocals weren’t always at the same quality in every song, but they are at their best at the beginning of Gather The Dead and at the end of Mandatory Homicide/Death Inc, which almost rivals Slayer’s Mandatory Suicide (coincidence? Probably not) in simple but effective lyric pacing and writing. Moreover, as if it should come as a surprise, the lyrics are overflowing with gore-filled tales of murder and killing and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Though slightly repetitive (less so than on Monument Of Death) and perhaps unoriginal at times, the fact still remains that I really enjoyed this CD from beginning to end. Blood Red Throne is almost the Death Metal version of Swedish Thrashers Hypnosia; both bands don’t really offer anything new, but both bands take the sound of various originators in their fields, combine it into a neat package, and perform it with a savvy for well-played and catchy Metal. While this won’t appeal to everyone, or perhaps it won’t appeal to you as much as it did to me, I still highly recommend both Blood Red Throne full-lengths to fans of Death Metal.