Resurrection - Embalmed Existence
Nuclear Blast
Death Metal
9 songs (38:45)
Release year: 1993
Resurrection, Nuclear Blast
Reviewed by Goat
Archive review

A Death Metal band from Florida formed in 1990, Resurrection split up in 1996 but reformed in 2005. It would be unfair to get your hopes up and dub this a forgotten masterpiece; although it’s very good, there are a couple of major faults that stop it being truly incredible. Let's start with the good, however; the playing and growled vocals are faultless. Catchy riffs are everywhere to be found, from the Obituary-esque Doom of Smell Of Blood to the Thrashier likes of Torture Chamber. Paul Degoyler’s vocals are amazing, deep, vicious and equally as impressive as the Tardys and Vincents of the world. Even the drumming is fast and technical, blastbeast Gus Rios giving an outstanding performance.

Yet here’s the problem: eight out of nine tracks on the album have what can only be described as godawful narration at the start, spoken by one ‘Mark the Storyteller’. On the first few listens you’ll laugh and accept it, but keep listening and it’ll get very annoying indeed. It’s a pity; the one song unencumbered by this, Pure Be Damned, thus automatically becomes one of the best tracks, and the KISS cover that closes the album, War Machine, is spoilt by the nonsensical rubbish tacked on at the start and end.

If you can at least try and pretend that Resurrection were a fun-loving band and knew that the spoken sections were hammy and ridiculous, then there’s a very good album awaiting. Opening song Disembodied has an almost Progressive sense of melody, dreamy vocals intersposed with heads-down, Thrash seriousness, and should be much longer than its three minute length. Following track Rage Within is positively Deathian, taking that original old-school sound and marrying it to Bolt Thrower brutality.

Any fan of the early 90s Death Metal sound will love this album, assuming they can learn to like the narration. Sadly, only a few bands seem to have gained enough fame to still be of interest to post-millenial Death Metal fans, but there’s a wealth of talent awaiting excavation, and Resurrection are worth a listen. Lower the score given by 20 if you really can’t stand the thought of ridiculously cheesy narration, but if you think you can withstand it (and it can be real torture) then give Embalmed Existence a shot.

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Killing Songs :
Disembodied, Rage Within, Smell Of Blood, Torture Chamber, Eyes Of Blind, Pure Be Damned
Goat quoted 79 / 100
Other albums by Resurrection that we have reviewed:
Resurrection - Reborn (EP) reviewed by Dylan and quoted no quote
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