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| #FOR FANS OF: Death Metal, Hate Eternal, Immolation |
Finally getting settled on a definitive name after several incarnations, this debut offering is a wholly impressive collection of tight, brutal and modern-sounding Death Metal that has a distinctly unique approach. While this might not come in the form of its’ music, as this tends to utilize the same tight guitar lines throughout this that showcase furious rhythms and a sense of technically-complex arrangements that are nothing new, that works in its favor throughout this. Opting for a mix of brutality with some technically-complex arrangements while wrapped around a series of tight rhythm sections, pounding drumming and a wholly diverse approach that allows for hints of melody, Gothic-styled atmospheric interludes and even eerie-sounding chanting are all pushed together to make a loud, tight and overall pleasing blast of epic, scathing Death Metal that is pretty original and far better than it should be, especially for a debut. The problem with this is that the material is just too epic for its own good, often-times going on endlessly for no reason other than to throw in another atmospheric interlude section before going back to the guttural blasting that was a part of it all along, or just firing away at needlessly overdrawn progressive influences that really shouldn’t be there as it tends to meander around quite often in this extended running times that have no place in a Brutal Death Metal band. Even with those progressive influences, there’s no reason an album like this should contain seven-eight minute songs, much less a scalding epic over fifteen minutes in length as those tend to get quite overlong quickly and even lose some of their impact and energy at that length when it contains nothing but furious-paced blasting for several minutes to the point it tends to get repetitive and boring, and that doesn’t happen on the more traditional four-five minute pieces. That’s appropriate for this style and really tends to let the band utilize its talents in their best capacity, keeping the best tracks in that slot and never really having to worry about much else. Intro ‘Dawn of Genesis’ sets the stage immediately with raging drumming and tight guitar rhythms with frantic patterns and mid-tempo paces that runs through multiple riffing patterns to maximize the damage. Much like that, ‘Freedom Shall Never Come from God’ features dynamic tempo changes, varying riff arrangements and a slew of impressive atmospheres to make for a wholly engaging opus and one of the albums’ best. The short blaster ‘Everything That Is on the Earth Shall Perish’ is also pretty fast and intense, while ‘To Harden the Heart’ showcases the bludgeoning technicality better than anything else here for a wholly dynamic offering. The massive epic ‘Purification by Primordial Waters’ builds on the technicality into more progressive realms with varying tempos, alternating riffs and a slew of dynamic arrangements within the guitars and drumming to leave a slightly bloated and overlong feel for a brutal Death Metal track but still gets a lot of material right about it. ‘You Are Not’ thankfully gets back to the raging tempos and frantic arrangements that allow the brutality of the technically-complex arrangements to work rather well, while the dynamic ‘As Your Lord Was in the Storm’ starts off with a slow, plodding beginning before getting into faster-but-still-mid-tempo paces for a better finale. ‘Ghost and Chimera’ gets the blazing speed and furious rhythms back in full-force with a vicious, rabid assault here that has plenty of complex riffing and dynamic energies throughout. Finally getting to the massive epic ‘The Soul’s Congregation (Soul Injected Part II),’ it showcases almost every variety of arrangement and tempo pattern possible in a weighty, overlong epic teeming with impressive variations and dynamics which allow this a dignified grace that’s mostly missing from the rest of the album and scoring this one quite positively. Overall, this is quite surely a rather impressive effort. (Don Anelli)
(Self - 2012)
Score: 85