There is a limit to how clever death metal can get after which it starts sounding like something else entirely. A lot of modern death metal bands find themselves at the wrong side of this equation, where they are so focused on tuning as low as possible and rhythmic complexity that they forget about riffs and the aggression. Many of those bands can learn a lesson or two from Blackstone. While a lot happens within the songs on their third album ‘Devoid of Humanity’, there is a very distinct, riffy old school death metal atmosphere to the album.

Despite hailing from Venezuela, the Scandinavian influence in Blackstone’s music is more than obvious. They don’t sound like any specific Swedish bands, though there are some riffs here that would not sound out of place on an early At the Gates or Edge of Sanity album. It would not be unreasonable to compare Blackstone to the early days of the Gothenburg scene due to the amount of melody in their riffs, but the overall song structures and general heaviness bring to mind the Stockholm scene a little more, albeit with more ambitious compositions. Never so ambitious that it becomes impossible for the listener to follow, however.

Another thing that sets Blackstone apart from their Scandinavian sources of inspiration are the little touches from other styles that they weave through their music in short bursts. ‘Toxic Paradise’, for instance, has its melodic death metal onslaught interrupted for a bossa nova section, while ‘Hostile Lands’ has a brief segment near the end that takes clear influence from flamenco, in terms of both the guitars and the vocals. The latter comes as quite a surprise, as drummer Keny Godoy employs an effective, grimy growl for a majority of the album.

Other highlights include ‘Denial of Reality’, which is home to some of the best riffs Joel Vegas and Gherson Morgado deliver here and some of the coolest melody lines Blackstone ever recorded, the excellently dynamic ‘Fading from the Mortal Ground’, the powerful opener ‘Twisted Time Vectors’, and the consistently unpredictable, pulsating ‘Cosmic Horizons’, which also features a brief appearance of clean-ish vocals by Godoy. The ominous, vaguely Suffocation-esque instrumental ‘Petrified Black Forest’ closes the album in style, as it consistently keeps building towards darker moods. It even features a brief acoustic bit that makes complete sense within the composition.

Really, ‘Devoid of Humanity’ is one of the best early nineties-style death metal albums that was released in the 2010’s. Blackstone’s devotion to old school, somewhat melodic death metal is clear, but the album does more than just honor its influences. My only real issue with it is that at barely over thirty minutes, it’s really short, but let’s be honest: that didn’t keep ‘Reign in Blood’ from becoming a classic either. If the worst thing you can say about an album is that you want more of it, that’s fairly solid proof that it’s a good album.

Recommended tracks: ‘Fading from the Mortal Ground’, ‘Denial of Reality’, ‘Hostile Lands’