What a time to be a death metal band in Ukraine, you have all the inspiration you could ever ask for. These guys go from angular riffing into highly hooky crunches. There is some great guitar playing, the drums are a little buried in the background, but I will throw some headphones on for the second song and see if that helps. The second song is murkier and less deliberate, with the guitars weaving around one another in a chaotic manner. It takes about a minute and a half before things slow down enough for the song to get its footing. When they speed up, they just sound like every other death metal band. I like how the vocals are recorded; this creates the feel of the low growl as more of a spectral rasp.
"Gnosis" has more of a grinding, mechanical Morbid Angel feel, rather than the more epic chug of Bolt Thrower. They have riffs coming out of their ass. This creates a thrashing labyrinth they sometimes wrestle against, making it hard for the vocals to find their place. The drums thunder more to the forefront as the album progresses. They still have a cavernous sound, but this album was likely recorded in a bunker. Most of the songs are around the four-minute mark so they do not waste any time when it comes to compositions. "Arammu" has more groove to its riffing. This works better for my ears. The verse is very deliberate despite the trippy phasing effects on the guitars. The pitch harmonics have a early '90s squeal to them.
The title track has even more Morbid Angel flowing in the opening riff. They do switch things up into a darker, more brooding verse to give themselves more of a defined personality rather than being the sum of their influences. There is a hooky rallying cry that this song invokes, and I like how they thrash out of this into darker moods. The bass picks up the slack as needed in these transitions. The solos echo off into the reverbed distance, rather than jsut being shred fests. The last song starts off with an almost rock n roll guitar melody. It descends into a dense battle of guitars. This is another case of where they pile all of the riffs they have been hoarding into this five-minute outburst. I will give this one a 9, it's a solid effort, who knows how much of a future their homeland has, much less as a band, but this is a fitting testament to the times they made this in,Out September 12th on Redefining Darkness.
pst399
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