Formed by members of Graveyard Ghoul and Karloff, this is the German band's first full length. Inspired by a mushroom trip, the overall sound of the first song does not deviate far from most standard death metal, there is a little more ambiance and darkness but by the second song they are charging into thing the brutality you normally expect from the genre. The vocals are more of a snarled declaration than a guttural gurgle. Still they will swear this is not going to be a normal death metal album. Slight dissonance haunts things, think a death metal band influence by Voivod in this regard. Perhaps they have never heard Voivod and mushrooms just turn death metal into something closer to Voivod.
The guitar solos might not shred like sober minded death metal. It is not until the until the third song that the drugs begin to kick in. There is a marginal more rock like thinking in the composition when this does occur, but a dynamic ebb and flow away from distorted guitars. The vocals take on more of a rasp for the building punches. The drummer is also providing vocals which gives me Nocturnus vibes,. There are also a few passages where the guitars have more of a surf rock feel than the normal death metal attack. The first song where a sitar shows up, is more of an interlude than an actual song, I think using a sitar over death metal would be the move to make as it is something you hear less of. They do float over into shoe gaze with "Paracletus" so the mushroom must be working well.
"Tachycardia" finds them blasting back into the more common place aggression of death metal. "AION" is darker and more deliberate which I appreciate more. "Crimson Rain" is almost another way of saying Rain in Blood, yet there is little Slayer influence in the last song, which blasts well within the bounds of death metal. I will give this album a 9, lots of fun, and some of the more melodic moments are the best. No surprise Caligari is releasing this as they are a label with an excellent track record.
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