Death Prophecy hail from the Cental Javan city of Salatiga. They formed in 2010 but they didn’t release their first full-length album, Massacre from Meiji Ishin, until 2021. The title is a reference to the tumultuous time when Japan was forced into the world market by America. The country rapidly modernized and many ancient traditions, including the samurai, were ended in the process.
The band’s music is just as brutal as the album cover suggests, sounding similar to acts such as Abominable Putridity. The production is overwhelming. Every musical element crashes down on the listener like collapsing walls. The rampaging blast beats are made even more vicious by the raw sound of the snare. That raw sound amplifies the impact of all the other patterns, such as the simple slam beats and the mid-paced rhythms. The constant clatter of the cymbals help in this as well.
The growls are delightfully brutal. They are deep and guttural, a fantastic musical embodiment of gore. The guitars are excellent as well. They play dark, rapid palm-muted riffs, sinister tremolo riffs, screeching pinch harmonics, frantic sweep picking, and simple, crushing slam riffs. All of these riffs sound quite similar to bands of the past – the title track even reminded me of Cannibal Corpse – but they’re still played extremely well.
This is yet another amazing display of brutality from Indonesia. May they hone their craft and continue to bring forth musical carnage with any future albums they record.