Jesus Wept are one of those bands that can be easily missed. Confused with others and budding beneath the surface of an ever dying American Death Metal scene. Apartheid Redux is their debut album, taking songs from their EP and their single ‘Comfortably Dumb’ and giving it a whole-ness. Despite their relative freshness, they’re putting a lot of stock in these songs. The defining moments of these albums are in the thundering steady beats in the drums and the absolute carnage in their snarling and fierce vocalist. When ‘Buried Face Down’ hits, it pounds and sparks up in your ears. It’s not a particularly unique angle, there are many bands that have a similar old skool Death Metal theme. The distorted guitars humming behind the drums in an almost atmospheric thrash. It’s a very traditional sound but the instruments compliment each other. They evidently know this, they’re putting a lot into these songs, they’ve released them already. It all comes together in the gallops as in ‘Hammering the Nails’ and the instrumentation in ‘Comfortably Dumb’, from guitar solo to outro. It serves to break the mould. As the one true weakness of the band is their ready confidence in sameness. They clearly adore the style that they play and it hears very well. Particularly with the snarling vocalist, straight from a more Black Metal variety. This means that their ideas are honed into each song with care. They want that atmosphere and that thunderous beats of hard Metal, distorted the way the first Death Metal bands are. It just leaves songs hard to cry out from the crowd. The album is quite short as well, listening far more like an EP. It is seven tracks in length and one song is forty seconds with a lot sitting between two and three minutes. They put a lot into the small moments rather than offer an abundance. Giving nothing new, but ‘Fucked on the Cross’ and a W.A.S.P. cover, ‘Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)’, is an almost strange move. But it is this album that solidifies their position, to start new and properly with their debut release. Score: 7/10 Facebook: /thejesuswept/ Instagram: @jesus_fucking_wept/ Bandcamp: /jesusfuckingwept.bandcamp.com/