Belphegor: " Conjuring the Dead"

I always though of this Austrian band as the guys who blended bdsm themes into their lyrical content. This novelty stuck with me for a album or so but some of the death metal elements were too straight forward and that kind of meat and potatoes blasting is what they greeted me with from the onset of their new album "Conjuring the Dead".

The title track carries more of a Morbid Angel like chug to it. Think "God of Emptiness" or anything from "Domination". The bridge finds the guitars reaching into some interesting exotic chord progressions. The vocals stay largely in the guttural low end of death metal. The spooky middle section of the song makes it a winner in my book.

The chug to " In Death" is powerful enough to challenge the cool riffs don't make a good song law around here.The verse riffs is thrashier than expected from these guys As this album continues it's clear these guys are acting as a replacement for Morbid Angel .

"Rex Tremendae Majestatis" is where they start to break away from the Morbid Angel thing, though the album does return to that vibe. Toward the three minute mark things starts leaking melody. "Black Winged Torment" holds the first few elements of black metal.They album finds it's chug again on " Legions of Destruction". The snare sound on this album is a little tinny so they blast beats are not the most compelling, but it gives the album a more raw old school death metal sound. The conjure an almost more Watain like sound here.

The more Behemoth like elements rise up on "Flesh Blood and Bones". The syncopation is tighter and it feel more well written than most of the song's on the Polish band's album. The Morbid Angel vibe is mixed with a Mayhem like black metal on "Lucifer Take her ". The groove gives may to a redundant blast and the pitch harmonics are a little old by this point.  

They dip into some more melodic almost black metal moments on " Pactum In Aeturnum", but for the space on my iPod it's a too little too late in terms of originality. So I will give this band an 8.5, because they do capture some cool sounds and there are some pretty decent tunes on here, If you are a fan of this sort of thing then round it up as I am sure you will love it. This album ranked as high as it did on the merits of the sheer power of the chug they are able to survive on.