Ohio's
A Gruesome Find stands apart from the hordes of mediocre death metal bands on the worldwide underground. The quartet isn't doing anything new or different with the style, but what they do, they do quite well. The technically solid musicians have honed themselves into an impressive display of four-way groupthink, so that Lord Mininger's blastbeat drums meld perfectly with Deathcrush's hyperspeedy guitar riffs. (And yes, there's at least a glimmer of wit in the pseudonyms; for the record, the singer is Naberius and the bassist is Isaac Cain.) Even more impressively, it's much easier than usual to tell when one song ends and another begins, which is not always the case with death metal. Furthermore, Naberius does much more than most with the usual death growl vocals: he's capable of more subtlety in his phrasing than most, with a greater than average dynamic range. Those who can't tolerate death metal in any form won't have their minds changed, but in a style that's growing increasingly stale,
Minions Engage is a solid listen. ~ Stewart Mason