Artist: Ignostic Reign
Title: Demo 2008
Type: Demo
Label: Self Released
Getting yourself recognised in todays over saturated metal scene is no easy task despite the internet offering the degree of exposure most new bands just take for granted. Sweden’s Ignostic Reign offer the kind of death metal that old geezers like me drooled over in the early 90s. The opening chords on “Torn Apart” possess that melodic edge that Swedish death metal always has, with the vocals coming across as the bastard offspring of Ola from Grave. “Enslaved” trundles along using a guitar sound that has that rasping gravel tone we all love. Though I quite liked this demo the pace of the songs borders sludge and for that I found the songs a little tedious. The dirge like “Experiment Concealed” has some chunky riff tonnage that is fairly memorable if a little predictable overall.
“Act Of Retaliation” picks up the pace eventually with a typical double bass kick that adds heaviness to the track. Best track on offer is the speedier and far more aggressive “The Observer” which has a true Grave vibe running through it. Whether this demo has the impact to get this band noticed or not is highly debatable as there are so many high quality death metal acts out there all of whom offer something that bit different to what is on offer here. Unfortunately I suspect Ignostic Reign will be lost among the myriad of very talented death metal we have available to us. They may be waving the flag of old school death metal but with Dismember and Grave still flying theirs Ignostic Reign will have difficulty in garnering much attention.
http://www.myspace.com/ignosticreign
Martin Harris
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