Gory death metallers Impaled is here with yet another disturbing result of their grotesque and experimental studies in cerebral and tissue damaging surgery. The result this time is yet another sick and defaced creation. Unlike past and slightly more successful operations like The Dead Shall Dead Remain and Mondo Medicale, Death After Life suffers under a somewhat muddy sound that detracts a little from their sick musical escapades. The band pretty much continues with their procedures from where the predecessor Mondo Medicale was laid to rest. It seems like the band has chosen to settle on the formula conceived on the aforementioned Mondo Medicale which in other words means mid-paced gory death metal in the vein of Carcass. New member of staff Jason Kocol [Emergency Metal Technician] does a fine job in replacing guitarist and vocalist Andrew LaBarre who departed from the band last year.

The references to disbanded goremeisters Carcass are many and the band does absolutely nothing to hide their adoration of the aforementioned. That is perhaps also their greatest weakness because it often tends to sound too much like the sick Englishmen - but since we can't have the real deal anymore it's fine with me that bands like Impaled keep their gory legacy alive. Songs like "Gutless", "Resurrectionists" and "Medical Waste" are the ones that stand out the most but the remaining material is worthwhile too. The short spoken pieces "Theatre of Operations" and "Critical Condition", however, gets a bit annoying after a while - but then again they do offer a little breathing space in between all the utter savagery. Death After Life doesn't surprise in any way and I didn't expect it to do so. I don't see any problem in that as long as the music holds and it does. The grading is perhaps a little too low but because of the somewhat muffled and muddy production it doesn't get higher than seven.