Altarage : "Nihl"

Sure this is brutal, but can these guys write a damn song? All the fuss about a death metal band ? The production does give this album some grime and grit, but is it hiding what's really going on ? By the time we get to the second song it's beginning to just sound like noise to me. Maybe these guys are the heaviest band from Spain, but unless they start showing me they care about making music it doesn't really matter. By the third song we get some dark dissonance that adds a little bit of texture. Any substance ends up getting lost in a wall of blasting. I have heard better melodies made by the roar of a vacuum cleaner. The songs are rather compact. Though they all tend to sound the same. You can almost make out the words being growled on "Baptism Nihl". There is almost something more head-bangable on this song as well.

The blasting loses it's effectiveness as it all becomes a flatulent blur on "Vortex Pyramid". There are a few moments here and there, but they are dulled down by the incessant barrage of distorted noise. This album becomes something to be endured rather than enjoyed once I make it to the 6th song. I can not understand why any one would see this as anything but overbearing death metal. Yet doom has even been thrown around in conjunction with the band. They do eventually offer sparse breathing room when the drums go into a more tribal beat, while slower than their brand of death metal, this doesn't make them a doom band. "Altars' almost sounds like a black metal band covering Pantera's "Walk". This is actually the album's best song. The last song is some random roaring that hopes to be redeemed by the big chugging, which is powerful, but lots of empty sonic calories. I'll give this a 5.5 , maybe it's for you if you have really been wanting a death metal band to bring the noise.