These severely under rated Dutch demons have produced a blistering attack of barbaric black metal that continues the rampaging savagery of “Dodengang”. The bands style is unique for combining a dissonant drumming style with ferocious blackened madness that has some traits of death metal amongst the bitter wickedness.
Every album I hear these days seems to begin with an intro and thankfully the opening track “Blood” is not an intro as a rabid gnashing riff snaps out of the speaker like Cerberus himself. The chaotic nature of the songs takes some getting used to as the drums often fade out of synch with the riffs as though the riff is trying to keep up the pace. “Burn In The Fires Of Hell” is as vitriolic and violent as black metal comes as the relentless barrage of ferocious finesse creates a menacing atmosphere that seems to terrorise your very soul.
Every song on this release has a palpable air of dread that manifests itself in the riff structure and the sheer hostility of the songs. “Interlude Torment” is no interlude with the song maintaining the spiteful riffing onslaught with subtle changes that are deluged by a bulldozing double bass time signature. “Damnation” has more off kilter drumming techniques with an unyielding double bass assault that brings about the death metal influences, which also appear in the lead work.
The unforgiving nature of this album and similarity of the songs make this devastatingly brutal from start to finish, though “Blazing Storm Of Steel” has some signs of melody when the speed drops momentarily. When the speed returns the lead remains resilient and stands its ground against the riff onslaught. It is easy to describe these songs with adjective phrases like sheer ferocious power but whilst the album is one of the most crushingly fierce I’ve heard this year the songs pack a complex array of riffs that if you’re not careful you’ll miss them, and the same applies to the leads and the truly gargantuan drum work.
The title track fools you with its slower melody and double bass barrage, as the track skips schizophrenically from blast territory to the slower punishing assault. The closing track has that apocalyptic war metal feel as the album ends as devastatingly barbaric as it started. A superb display of remorseless black metal sadism.
http://www.myspace.com/sammath666
