Eschaton - Causa Fortior (2006)

On its surface, Causa Fortior is not an incredibly adept offering, just another in an endless stream of European underground black metal recordings which do little to further or expand the genre boundaries or surpass its influences. However, these Greeks are slightly better at 'gunning for glory' than a number of their peers. The riffs are solid if repetitive, creating this harried vortex of desperation, the tracks almost unanimous in their airy warrior struggle. Admittedly, many of them speed along the same axis of pacing, and a particular ennui begins to set in, especially in the unnecessarily lengthy pieces which leave the 8-minute mark in the dust, but Causa Fortior is not exactly a mind-numbing bore, nor is it swollen to the point of no return.

What I like most about Eschaton here is the fibrous, raw thrust of their sound. As primitive as most of underworld acolytes demand from this medium, the earnest clap-trap of the drum kit meshes wholly with the bristling current of the guitar tone, and the decrepit vocals are given a wide swath of space over which to growl and grimace. This is one highly kinetic album, always pushing forward and rarely looking back or allowing the listener a chance to breathe, but that's not to say it's built entire of vapid blasting. "Transfigured Vision" has a decent thrash breakdown deep in the bridge, and "Steel Glowing in Darkness" is noteworthy for the streaming contrast of distorted bass and primary melody, while moving at a more belligerent mid-pace than many of its neighbors.

As I mentioned earlier, though, there are a few tracks in desperate need of some liposuction, namely the opener "Avenger, Dark Sun" and "Strength at Abound". The central riffs coursing through these are simply not among the more engaging on the album, and I felt like tuning out at numerous junctures. Cut down to 4-5 minute slices, they'd be far more effective. Overall, these guys are just not that strong at composing their guitars, so they rely heavily on the stratospheric rush of passion and atmosphere implied in their velocity. The notation wouldn't be out of place for their various, upper tier Greek contemporaries, like if earlier Varathron was sped up, but really, this comes off as another derivative of the Scandinavian school of philosophy. That said, Causa Fortior is a respectable, if forgettable debut full-length, its few moments of inspirational momentum outnumbered by its surges of somnolent sameness. Not bad, but not exactly teeming with merit either.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10] (wide open the eyes)

http://www.eschaton-arm.cjb.net/

Cruentus - Asantusta Aatma (2005)

Cruentus might just be the first band I've ever reviewed from Nepal, so it's a little bittersweet that it must be done posthumously, the band having separated some time ago. Still, Asantusta Aatma is worthwhile enough that the band deserves a mention, despite the obvious setbacks involved with the release: the geographic obscurity, and the lack of true cover art due to an issue between the designer and original artist. As one who is fascinated by Asian culture in general, I'll admit that I was hoping for a bit of an ethnic, aesthetic spin to Cruentus' music, perhaps in the vein of Singapore's Rudra, but that is not quite what manifests here. Having said that, this is a versatile act which enjoys pushing and pulling the listener through a number of dynamic shifts, sort of a melodic black and death metal hybrid who aren't afraid to snarl their fucking lungs out over cleaner guitar passages.

I admire the band's conviction to not repeat themselves through the various tracks. It's clear they spent a good deal of time writing and practicing for this, rattling riffs off with precision while straddling the death, black and thrash metal genres. The drums are a bit loud in the mix, yet they're constantly rolling out the fills and solid beats to provide an excellent backbone through tracks like "Beneath the Bleeding Moon" or "The Shadows of Darkness". The vocals are largely wrought from the black rasping camp, but they'll also incorporate deep, guttural growls that manage not to distract from the more streamlined, melodic surges of the guitars. I can't say that I actually love the axe-tone here, it feels a bit subdued next to the drums and snarling, but that doesn't necessarily detract from the riffs, which are carefully composed like a bastard stepson of Mayhem and Morbid Angel. Bright, devastating, and dissonant in equal measures, and what's surprising is that you'll even hear a strong undercurrent of good old epic heavy metal in tunes like the closer "Unknown Warrior".

With an underground band, you don't always expect the highest standards of production, and Asantusta Aatma does suffer slightly in this department. It's essentially a demo level recording. I already mentioned the volume of the drums, but the guitars also often vary enough in tone that it feels as if it were mixed down in various modular chunks. The clean guitars flow like rivers of remorse, note-wise, but they feel a bit too stripped down. Some extra effects applied to the tone might have bred better results ("In the Circle of Fear", "Bless Me With Thy Pain"). But these few gripes aside, Cruentus certainly proved they had the competence to go a lot further. The performances are tightly executed, the vocals ghastly and the writing not entirely dependent on any one influence. In short, something bordering on unique might have developed from the project had it endured, and Asantusta Aatma, while not always the most memorable experience, proves yet again that extreme metal can thrive from even the most unexpected corners of the world. If you're interested in such South or Southeastern Asian bands as Impiety, Rudra and Surrender of Divinity, this might not be a hard sell.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.last.fm/music/Cruentus%28Nepal%29

Erebus Enthroned - Night's Black Angel (2011)

I'd read quite a few good things about this Australian black metal outfit's debut, and while the style on exhibit here is hardly 'news', I must say that for once, such early praise is far from empty. There's definitely a Norse or Swedish spin to the composition, somewhere between Mayhem and Emperor, delivered through full bodied riffing, dynamic variation and high production standards, comparable to many of the 1st tier genre staples. I would actually draw a parallel to their countrymen Nazxul, only without the symphonic streak coursing through their latest, Iconoclast. Sure, there are a lot of more unique artists in the spectrum with a more memorable admixture of ingredients, but Night's Black Angel is raging and competent enough to win some attention from genre adherents, even though several traits feel standard to the medium (like the vocals).

One of the most noteworthy characteristics of the album is the lack of dependency on sheer blasting material. They can accelerate at will, but instead they incorporate lots of mid-paced, harrowing grooves and spikes of fibrous tremolo picked riffs with tails of bright dissonance. Dense, efficiently thrashing mute-streams that jerk the listener about like a puppet in the grasp of the devil. There are also arching, glorious bridges in the riffs of "Enthroning the Harbinger of Death" "Zealotry in Death" and the title track. Threads of dark, droning ambiance are often used to roll out the black, thriving guitars, but there is one track here ("Temple of Dispersion") which is sheer instrumental ambient horror. Perhaps the best songs are those with the slicing, blustering rhythms like "Nil (Solve non Coagula)" and "Blackwinged", both of which recall the underrated Swedish crew Mörk Gryning in their latter stage of modern propulsion, or several of their peers (Marduk, Dark Funeral, etc.)

There is nothing truly subtle about this debut, by which I mean it's not the sort of record where you'll keep hearing spectral haunts and revelations through repeated listens. They dress to impress immediately. It's quite easily ingested upon the first encounter, and thus it's not incredibly compelling in the long term, despite the high level of precision and competence felt through all the musicians' performances. I will say that their lyrics are fucking ace, though, and certainly they help ramp up what might otherwise be mistaken for a merely average effort. An incredible amount of thought has been placed in each passage, with incendiary incantations to various occult subjects that are threaded through a dreadful, nihilistic discourse that meshes well with the actual composition of the music. Erebus Enthroned could certainly gestate further to write a darker, more memorable onslaught, but I can't deny that Night's Black Angel provides at least a strong foundation from which to launch further atrocities.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (a baptism in blood and ash)

http://www.seancerecords.com/erebusenthroned/

Dodsferd - Desecrating the Spirit of Life (2006)

Somewhere out there, under the dark digital eaves of the internet, or obscured deep in the porch-lit groves of the rustic countryside, there seems to exist a brotherhood of diabolic fiends whose sole purpose is to out-maneuver and out-fuzz one another in the medium of black metal music. How cryptic, callous, and disaffected can the genre get? We've got bands, or individuals out there who make records so bleak and plebeian that De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Under the Sign of the Black Mark and A Blaze in the Northern Sky sound like Quincy Jones productions by comparison! Remarkably, though, this setback does not necessarily equate to any automatic dismissal, because such cold and uncaring aesthetics are often crucial components to the artist's emotional, or lack of emotional, discharge.

Enter Dodsferd, and the debut Desecrating the Spirit of Life, a rigid example of when and how this technique doesn't seem to function as intended. Now, I'm not going to sugarcoat, a lot of this project's material is mediocre at best. As one of the more prolific Hellenic black metal acts in the past decade, you'd expect more of their throughput to stick, but that just isn't the case. But clearly there is a procession of tweaks and progressions through the Dodsferd catalog, but you can consider Desecrating the Spirit of Life the very twisted root of that body of work, lying dried and dying beneath the soil and in desperate need of some sustenance, whether through rainfall or the blood of some unfortunate to happen by. What's really to fuck up here? You've got your corpse painted poster boy kneeling between candles, inverted cross in the background and the expected black/white newsprint aesthetic, married to a grimy and fuzzy guitar tone, suicidal and misanthropic lyrics, and a sinister rasping specter.

In other words, all the ingredients for Darkthrone. The problem is, they are assembled into the most basal and pedestrian compositions you've likely heard, with alternating, empty melodic tremolo blasts and slow and drowsy sequences of chords affixed to dingy programmed beats, never once culling the interest of the listener in 53 fucking minutes! Seriously, just by accident you'd figure that 53 minutes of guitar would produce something memorable, somewhere, but from the baleful, brooding "Kruzifixion of Human Disgust", to the noisy feedback-inflected flurry of "Doomed in Eternal Solitude", to the high paced ennui of "Fuck Humanity and Celebrate the Destruction of the Masses" with its obvious and overdrawn chorus, there is never any sense of real darkness or disturbance within the songwriting. It's basically like a couple guys plugged in instruments, turned on a tape recorder and improvised the emulation of their favorite bands, with zero quality assurance.

Song titles, packaging, subject matter, all seemingly cut and paste from various other sources and gathered under a Norse moniker. Now, I'm not trying to initiate some hate on for Wrath and Dodsferd. I like a few of the later albums. Hell, if the songs here were in the least bit compelling, I could forgive all of the derision and derivation, or any other flaw present here. but Desecrating the Spirit of Life is an effortless shadow dweller of an album, mimicking aesthetics that have come and gone, come again and gone again, like a milk truck parked outside the home of your neighborhood's hottest mom. I remember reading somewhere about how this band was all about shucking trends and conventions. But there's nothing 'anti-trend' about this, it's the very definition of trend, desecrating the spirit of one of the most intriguing genres in the musical spectrum. Perhaps that's the point of the thing, but it doesn't make for engrossing music, and it's the worst of this band's full-length recordings.

Verdict: Fail [4.25/10]

Darkthule - In the Sight of Dawn EP (2006)

If I can admit to some superficiality, Darkthule is a band I always would have liked to see succeed. Just something about their dark, brooding atmospheres, cool cover art and memorable logo that I find so aesthetically pleasing as to silently cross my fingers and hope that each new release would at last deliver the goods. Sadly, this has yet to come to pass, and their demos, splits, and both full-lengths have been at best underwhelming. However, I wouldn't describe any of them as actively bad, a trait that can certainly be said for their 2006 EP In the Sight of Dawn, one of the most truly lazy pieces of crude, effortless black metal you're likely to hear. I doubt much importance was placed upon it by the band, since this is another of those limited edition 7" pieces with but a pair of tracks present; but another shot has been taken in the dark, missing its target by the widest berth of their career.

No, nothing other than a pair of lamentably generic and forgettable tracks beyond the six minute range, with monotonous and repetitive riffs you've heard countless times before, or at least their very damn near likenesses. The vocals feel garbled and petulant, more of a laconic conversational rasp than any passionate pronunciations, and the note streams follow that old Transilvanian Hunger vibe, only without the same hypnotic effect the Norwegians were going for. The drums are immensely tinny, hurried along beneath the dire melodic chord sequences, and not a single compelling guitar riff manifests anywhere. "In the Sight of Dawn..." is marginally less irritating than "The Greatness of Gods", if only because it has a slower tempo mixed into its incendiary, numbing blast work. The production of the EP is inferior even to the previous Revolution of Souls, which was honestly a pair of half-decent tracks. Perhaps the most raw and unassuming recording since the band's demos.

It's a pity, because I really want to like this stuff. The cover is once again appealing, and I like the ideal of these duo-tone, rustic images out of folklore and history. A sole wanderer gazing upon some natural edifice, some bubbling brook, waterfall, or wild beast. The isolated aesthetic may in fact be captured through the distant tone of the music here, but that doesn't make it any more interesting due to its strictly uninspiring level of composition. I'd be surprised if Darkthule couldn't knock out dozens of such tracks in a week, because there is just nothing to this droning waste of dead-horse beating. Surely they are capable of so much more, but will we ever get to hear it?

Verdict: Fail [4.75/10]

http://www.thepaganfront.com/darkthule/

Deadly Carnage - Sentiero II: Ceneri (2011)

Italians Deadly Carnage have conceived a quandary for their sophomore Sentiero II: Ceneri, an album which strafes the margins between heavily structured, bombastic and melodic black metal and threads of a more graceful, atmospheric nature that reek of a Gothic doom spectrum. At times, the material seemed somewhat confused in its intent, but that's not to say that they lack some compositional ability, and the way they pursue such warlike, percussive rhythms is not something you often experience among the methodic, straight blasting practitioners who represent the lion's share of the medium. I will go on a limb and say that the album reminded me of Portugal's Moonspell: not the Gothic, friendlier mainstream Moonspell of the mid to late 90s, but the more crushing black roots from which they emerged (and have since returned).

This is primarily in the sense of melody they weave through the rather churning, grandiose fare like "Guilt of Discipline" or "Epitaph Part I", and also in the overbearing volume of the vocals, which are enormous and bloody, Marcello giving you the full breadth and agony of his throat. Another, more obvious parallel can be drawn to Bathory's Blood Fire Death. The Italians like to utilize a lot of crashing, enormous, dipping rhythms that jerk the listener in and out of an almost Viking swagger of belligerence (also heavily present in the opener, "Guilt of Discipline"). Shifting and intricate walls of streaming tremolo guitars and intense double bass ability help to escalate these influences into a more precise, modern context. But then, there is the atmospheric and 'epic' side of this effort, like the 9 minute "Parallels" which feels like Falkenbach, Bathory and Dornenreich in a bloodied sea battle, with brief spurts of calm and deviation. Or the closer, "Ceneri", which is a tranquil and eloquent, 9+ minute piece with clean vocals.

Despite the obvious arsenal at their disposal, though, I did not find the majority of the music here to stick on me. Deadly Carnage could never be accused of lacking variation, evocative lyrical imagery or musical proficiency, because Sentiero II: Ceneri exhibits all of these elements in spades. For some reason, though, the content rolls off me like a wave breaking and ending its journey from the deeper sea. The various acoustic and distorted guitars, tempo shifts and vocals are all well integrated, and feel like they're telling a clear story, but they don't really add up to something I want to revisit. I also found the cover image, band name and lyrical ingredient to contrast a bit widely. There is passion and pain here, a stirring of emotions, but 'deadly carnage' seems about as fit as 'rotting christ' to that Greek band's later works. But this is a minor gripe for an album upon which the drummer plays a solo with his hands ("Ceneri"). Ultimately, I might laud the Italians for their stylistic hybrid, and their unique, strangely uplifting prose, but I didn't come out of the album heavily impressed by the actual songs.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10] (touch the ground, it's wet)

http://www.myspace.com/deadlycarnage

An Autumn for Crippled Children - Everything (2011)

Last year's Lost was an intriguing if ultimately vapid debut album from another band exploring the arcs of atmospheric and post-rock flavor within the medium of depressive black metal. I was quite smitten with a number of the tracks, and the band's razor kissing, blissful sense for textured melody, but the album was about half attention worthy and half attention deficit. These Dutchmen fall under a similar curtain of emotional contrast to the Swedish groups Svarti Loghin and Lifelover, or perhaps the overrated French Alcest, but not so much that they could be confused for such peers. Everything, the band's sophomore, follows a different cover aesthetic than its predecessor, promising a whited out sky against which the wings of birds and the eaves of skeletal trees strain, much like the band on its course towards defining misery and light.

This time, the band have asserted a slightly more progressive approach to their writing which is far better at rounding out the various 4-5 minute track lengths. The clean, desolate guitar tones that teeter upon the precipice of warmth return, with the same curving and lovely bass lines, but the melodic insinuations feel superior from the start, and continue to excel throughout the 44 minutes of the experience. "Forever Never Falls" transforms from an airy, elegant substance to a rush of fuzzed, painful black rasping and streamed chords, and then to a proggy streak of synthesizers that erupt into another emotional, wrist cutting climax. It's not one of the best here, but it sets up a framework into which the trio thrives. "Formlessness" possesses a resonant elegance with its bridge melody; "Absence of Contrast" a delicious breakdown with bass and piano; and "Her Dress as a Poem, Her Death as the Night" an amazing sheen of melody below with a turbulent percussion ruptures the listener's sanctity.

It's quite amusing, bewitching and disturbing in equal measures, and unlike Lost, I never felt that the album quite fell off its wheels. That's not to say that there are not a few flaws holding it back from the forerunners of its niche. The vocals, in particular, while appreciably torturous, tend to drone along without much memorable structure, even if not for excess periods of time. The more spacious, droning passages are oft imbued with instant hipster freakouts that are more jarring than interesting, and I was drawn to ill memories of bands like Litury or Krallice (well below these Dutchmen in terms of quality). On the whole, though, I rather enjoyed this trip, for its fusion of unnerving dissonance and glistening, open-vein beauty. Perhaps it's not a massive stride forward in depth or value from their debut, but it's more consistently haunting.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/crippledchildren2009

Nocturnal Fear - Excessive Cruelty (2011)

Poseurs and come-latelies always seem to be fawn over the latest Bay Area doppelgangers who shit themselves down the thrash pipe, but in truth there are a number of bands who have been absorbed in the retro-death/thrash or black/thrash movement for a decade or more, receiving little to no fanfare despite their chronological edge to the spurting cysts of younglings to take on the genre. Michigan's Nocturnal Fear is one such 21st centurion, predating the 'cool' kids by several years, with a punishing array of brutal thrash and death influences not the least of which include Destruction, Kreator, Sodom, and other German heavy weights, with a fare share of Slayer's methodical, intricate evil.

Clinical and angered riffing erupts without warning, and you can immediately discern the dichotomy between these bastards and their trendy teenage competition. Clearly there has been effort cast into the fiery molds of "Absolution Annihilation", "Murder for Hire" or "Excessive Cruelty" itself. I never got the impression that Nocturnal Fear were just re-arranging the riffs they heard on Bonded by Blood or Pleasure to Kill, but actually trying to forge destruction at a higher level of artistry, even if they're not entirely absolved of derivation. These are warlike and incessant compositions, never relenting unless they have a damned opportunity to shuffle in a bit of ominous atmosphere, like the tolling out of the bells deep in "Frozen Stone", or the winding and tearing lead nestled into "Rolling Thunder". The vocals remind me quite a lot of Toxiene from Witchery, at least on the Swedish band's first two, great records, only 'Devastator' is more pronounced and bloodied in the nose of the mix.

Now, I'm not going to claim that Nocturnal Fear are the next big thing, or that they've deigned to set foot outside the box, but Excessive Cruelty feels like an honest stab at bringing the genre back where it belongs, to the tense riffing at its core. We're not dealing with writing on the level of the band's distinct, 80s influences, but an admirable enough, repeated beating to the face. I could compare them to Ohio's Soulless, since the two bands share the same focus for meaty riffing structures, but these guys are obviously a lot more adapted to the battleground theme. Of the several albums I've heard (this being the 5th), I found this to be the most appealing. The mix is clear and muscled without excess polish, the musicians determined and competent. This is an album that will bruise you, perhaps break a few minor bones, even if it isn't likely to resonate for more permanent damage.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/nocturnalfearwarmetal

Morbus Chron - Sleepers in the Rift (2011)

From the spiraling chaos of its beautiful cover art, to the bare bones and carnal quality of its production, Sleepers in the Rift is one ace goddamn death metal album. The Swedes are admittedly quite retro in their take on the genre, and so one immediately would draw the conclusion that they're yet another in the tireless charade of bands emulating Entombed, Dismember, Carnage, Grotesque, Grave, and their ilk, but they're also one of the few projects I've heard lately that truly overcome the tired stereotypes to produce something effectively grimy and entertaining. Think of them more along the lines of Bastard Priest, Tribulation or Repugnant in their attempt to strip the sound down and slather it in raw, nearly crust-worthy admonition that the niche is dead in its tracks.

For one thing, Sleepers in the Rift is brilliantly paced. There's enough core variation in the riff writing that you never feel inundated with the same thing twice, and the band is not afraid to expand upon the envelope of early 90s Euro death by means of some clinical thrashing or face rocking, morbid doom rhythms. Each of the songs here actually SOUNDS like its title, a fact I find fascinating. "Hymns to a Stiff" is a swaying, swerving tribute to a corpse, forged in loose architecture and appreciable dissonance. One can just feel the mortician's excitement as he or she probes and prods the recently deceased. The doomed, funereal pageantry inherent in a tune called "Lidless Coffin". The spacious, volatile contrivance of of a "Deformation of the Dark Matter", twisted guitar sequences crashing into a spectral void like streams of incoherent and congealed nightmare-stuff, the sustenance of Elder Gods. Or the sheer face rocking of "Ways of Torture", the most old school d-beat inflected trip on the entire album.

All components fuse together in an unholy merger of peak Autopsy (first two albums) and the Swedish pioneers of the late 80s through about 1992. The vocals are abrasive and agonizing, with a good deal of resonant character, almost a midway point between Chuck Schuldiner and L-G Petrov. The drums are organic, constantly crashing and driving the meaty but deliberately under polished guitar tone. The bass is not exactly a high point, granted, but when tracks like the raging "Dead Body Pile Necrophile" or grooving "Red Hook Horror" begin their passage to your cortex, you will quickly lose concern as the album's maw of terror sends you stomach-ward into its abyssal, digestive juices.

What's more, the rather lowborn, silly yet honest lyrical style serves as a strangely functional contrast to the cosmic, extradimensional eye candy and brow raising band name. And both tracks from last year's Creepy Creeping Creeps EP are included, so there's no longer a necessity for tracking that down. Sleepers in the Rift is simply marvelous, retro without ripping from its influences too directly; fresh and ferocious in its pursuit of strong riffing and gelid, mind warping atmospheres. It's 1990 all over again, and one of the more compelling takes on the popular Swedish death niche since Repugnant's Epitome of Darkness, or The Horror by Tribulation a few years ago.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (crepuscular charm)

http://www.myspace.com/morbuschronband

Burial Hordes - War, Revenge and Total Annihilation (2006)

One of the more wretched and vile Greek black metal entities, the Burial Hordes were unearthed in the early 21st century to wreak havoc through a number of scathing demos that culled influence from the very roots of the black metal genre. Both first and second wave sounds are heard in their punishing meat sculptures, from Bathory and Celtic Frost to Mayhem, and at least here on their debut, they have this nasty take no prisoners mentality involving an incendiary and writhing addiction to blasted speed that they wisely alternate with breakdowns into moody, dissonant nightmares or surges of mid-paced, spine rocking chords that summon up memories of Hellhammer and Darkthrone.

War, Revenge and Total Annihilation is all too apt a title for their full-length debut, for while it might not be the most unique or enduring slab of black aggression on the block, it is without any doubt destructive. Ominous, dark tolling heralds the churning mass of "Bestial Bloodwar" which is just so caustic and loud that it peels any layers remaining, epidermal innocence from the skin of the listener. "Aeons of Hell" baits the audience with further lightning fervor before lurching into a twist of colon crushing chords. The architecture of hostile, minor melodies that introduce "Cosmic Genocide" drip like nihilistic vampire fangs over its bruising black acceleration, and "The Rapture of Hatred" builds itself brick by brick like a tower of blood-mortared stones. Of course, if you seek simply to have your face ripped off by songs that make Marduk and Mayhem sound like elevator muzak, then Burial Hordes also provides you with fare like "Unholy, Ultra-Violent Domination" and "Army of Heretics" which will reduce you to nuclear ash.

Filthy, indomitable, and borne of pure punishing abyss-winds, this is a debut destined to appeal to those that seek out black metal for no other reason than skull fractures and slipped vertebrae. In this way, they remind me of the more extreme Northern storms like 1349, but with a mildly less surgical and technical approach to the riff writing. The mix of the guitars is both rich and textured, even if the riffs themselves do not exactly stand outside of the hellish sum of the band's parts. Burial Hordes represent savage efficiency and truth to despotic ideals more so than any sense for subtlety or complexity, and as such, there is an undeterred authenticity to their sound, which trumps several of their Greek peers (Naer Mataron, etc) in pure hostility. Several of the members here have played in numerous other scene bands (Mortuus Caelum, Enshadowed, and Dead Congregation to name a few), and the experience shows.

That said, War, Revenge and Total Annihilation is not the most memorable concussion in its field. Decidedly less retro than its successor (Devotion to Unholy Creed), it's merely a competent and crashing execution of the form, with decent lyrics. Difficult to pick out or recall even a single guitar line from the entire album, but unquestionably unbridled in its fury.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (embraced by the absolute)

http://burialhordes.tripod.com/