On the metal band database, Metal Archives, Canadian band Planet Eater are described as death/thrash metal. "Blackness From The Stars is their second album and the album's first track "Boats" has me scratching my head at the death/thrash metal description. Not because it's horrible in a bad way, but there's a groove to the music that recalls Anselmo period Pantera. The vocalist's shouting falls somewhere between Anselmo and Matt Pike. There's no metal fan in the world that would class either Pantera or High on Fire as either thrash or death metal.
Second tune on the album, "Pile of Bones" edges a little closer to being death metal complete with raw rasping vocals. Third track, "Cold Confines", contains more than inkling of Swedish death metal however Donovan Turner's vocals are closer to hardcore shouting, which brings modern Psycroptic to mind however Planet Eater are nowhere as near as technical and this works in their favour as they rip a path of destruction without an excessive amount of noodling. There's an industrial clang to "Lies Evolution" whilst Planet Eater are too much of a ripping metallic beast so only incorporate repetitive factory sounds within their ferocity. In "Suffer What They Must" do actually incorporate thrash metal with speedy drumming and fast guitar playing but the base of this song is closer to sludge. Check it out below:
"Kill on Sight" is basically how I'd imagine Pantera would sound doing death metal so it's really deathcore stripped back to the bone.
The bottom line is that this definitely isn't death metal unless the genre has radically changed when we weren't listening. This is groove sludge with some thrash parts and a hardcore vocalist who often touches on deathly growls. Despite the negativity attached to this review, this is actually a really solid outing from this genre defying metal band and those into the heavier side of metal should enjoy Planet Eater.
3.5/5
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Planet Eater on bandcamp
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