Swedish one-man project ‘Damnation Army’ already has three albums to the projects credit, 2009 sees this new release battering the senses. The album tends to fair well in comparison to the previous releases, but overall this oozes maturity and melody in abundance, even if it was recorded in December 2007.
‘Resurrect My Demon’ has many harsh and heavy moments, nicely topped with melodic interludes, the vocals remind me of Dark Tranquility/Dissection and musically some elements lean more towards latter Dissection recordings. ‘999 Devils Descent’ bounces into action with the drums and a full flowing guitar assault, there is a lot of things going on during this album, you have to be fully attentive to recognise all the ideas coming together. This tracks solo is swirling and melodic, riffing is pretty damn tight and gives an all round melodic black sense of darkness. Thomas Nyholm certainly has plenty of ideas flowing through his mind on this project. All are perfectly executed and arranged to perfection.
The production is top notch; you cannot fault anything here, it gets confusing because there are many elements of melodic black metal on this release, but the overall feel for me is simply clever metal, Swedish melodic death and melodic black metal then it is! There are no utter blasting tunes; they are generally mid-paced, with simple drums patterns. You have one man doing everything so everything cannot be perfect, however, you do not really notice it. ‘Pha-Luteria’ does have a certain evil feel, and rounds off the album nicely. This project has been around since 2002, taking into account all the music that has passed since then, Damnation Army is a project worth checking out and an enjoyable listen. It is not a solo artists chance to show the world how well he can play, but an album that could be a proper band and is well bounded with power and might. I have been engrossed in this album from start to finish; it can be considered a minor epic.
In short, an album of blackened melody and well rounded arrangements.
http://www.myspace.com/damnationarmyswe
http://www.mascotrecords.com
