DEW-SCENTED – Ill-Natured & Innoscent (Remastered)

After their debut album, Immortelle, Dew-Scented kept on going while upgrading their intentions and intensity as a Metal band. Band members were replaced and it seems that a new approach had arisen in their midst. With the year-by-year releases of Innoscent (1998) & Ill-Natured (1999), the German band integrated Thrash Metal as a dominant element in their music while enslaving partial groove and modernity. Even though Ill-Natured‘s morbid tracklist was added first to this remastered project, the band’s sophomore release, Innoscent, came first a year earlier and gets attention first.

Starting with highly influenced Death-like compositions, Dew-Scented made their first step into their present image as a Thrash / Death outfit. You can say that Innoscent first introduced Dew-Scented as a Modern Thrash / Death band. After the harmonies of Immortelle, the Innoscent album brought heaviness and an aggressive manner. The harmonies were replaced with nice melodic touches into the rhythms, yet, performed and produced in a raw form. What hurt Dew-Scented on this release was the fact that the production of the release, even after the duo remastering works, wasn’t able to greatly capture the lead guitars (faltering the solos on several places) and generally made it difficult to be impressed. Nevertheless, it is hard to ignore that Innoscent helped to create a new Dew-Scented monstrosity.

The band maybe lowered the harmonies that served them rather well, yet, they partially let go of their Death-oriented side while becoming a new Thrash monster. The band’s new players Florian Muller (presently the guitarist of General Chaos after leaving Dew-Scented in 2008) and Uwe Werning (left Dew-Scented in 2008) proved themselves well by adding their talents to the band’s energy. One great example is “Starspangled”, mainly composed by Muller. The track itself is one of the best on this album, and a great step for the band where composing is concerned. However, aside from this track and others like the melancholic “Burn With Me”, thrashy “Shattered Insanity”, “Everred”, “The Grapes Of Wrath”, and a great covering performance for the Overkill classic of “Fatal If Swallowed”, Dew-Scented still had a way to go to reach their peak on Innoscent.

A year later, Dew-Scented released Ill-Natured, an album that may have been their best work up ’til then. Nevertheless, Ill-Natured didn’t exemplify the band’s full potential and their present performance; however, it made a difference when it came down to their music. Ill-Natured presents Dew-Scented as a band that went through a sort of brutalization, as this album also introduced a rougher and tougher edge. In addition, the sound production, even though not perfect, turned out to be way better than the previous Innoscent album as the solos were clearer and the drums were more noticeable than before. However, Leif Jensen’s vocals were somewhat kept in the dark. That error was corrected on the band’s later albums.

Musically speaking, Dew-Scented made a bit of progress after Innoscent as it upgraded the unification between Thrash and Death Metal. While taking another step towards Modern Thrash, Dew-Scented tried to inflict several semi-melodies, which are common in Modern Metal music. Even though the harmonies were totally out of order, as those weren’t composed in the first place on this release, the playing level of the tunes seemed to be elevated and the writing quality had risen. Exemplary massive tunes as “This Grace”, “Simplicity In Chaos”, “Embraced By Sin”, “Defiance”, the last short crushing blow of “The Endless”, and not to forget the well-done cover of Canadian Sacrifice’s o”Apocalypse Inside” … those were only small sweet tastes of sheer brutality and what will come later on in the band’s career. Through this release, the band’s potential is alive and it seems that only good will come out of this. As a whole, Ill-Natured is crushing, straightforward, and has a very nice outcome.  Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, Dew-Scented’s elevation process didn’t stop on this album as the kept on upgrading into their next bomber, Inwards.

Tracklist

1. Embraced By Sin
2. This Grace
3. Simplicity In Chaos
4. Apocalypse Inside (Sacrifice Cover)
5. Defiance
6. Wounds Of Eternity
7. Idolized
8. Skybound
9. The Endless
10. Shattered Insanity
11. Bereaved
12. Burn With Me
13. Starspangled
14. The Sicker Things
15. Everred
16. The Grapes Of Wrath
17. Aentity
18. Underneath
19. Fatal If Swallowed (Overkill Cover)

Lineup

Leif Jensen – Vocals
Ralf Klein – Guitars
Florian Muller – Guitars
Patrick Heims – Bass
Uwe Werning – Drums