Aggression is rampant here, alongside riffs that well accompany the vocals. Don't expect exceptionally fast tempo releases to spew out of your speakers, just pure awesome melodic death. I've never been a huge fan of this band, though I did think to myself "why the hell not try this new release?" It turned out for the better because they fit well within the melodic death genre, which is one of my favorite genres of metal. I was expecting to hear an album more brutal than this, but I was satisfied hearing this entire album. The melodies, production, vocals, atmosphere, etc. really blew the rest of the hair that I have left back.

There was a combination of deep throat which went into a transition to high end screaming, especially during the chorus bits. Everything seemed to fit really well in this recording. I'm motivated now to hear more of their material-this is for the fact that I've gained respect back for the band. Some really great melodies on here that remind me of a lot of older Arch Enemy, how the Amotts would have one guitar playing heavy rhythms alongside Michael's melodies in the lead department. That's the best way that I can describe this album's musicianship. Rhythm over lead riffs that simply dominate.

The emotion was really there-hatred, brutality, darkness, destruction that was all so ready laden destruction of melodic death annihilation. Definitely a great original release for this year, which has been a lot of disappointing outputs already in the metal scene, however, I give this one a "B" rating obviously because it is really appealing. Some riffs that occur here really strike home in your memory banks and slaughter the soul! A gripping onslaught of heavy, thick chord progressions with melodies that go well along with everything else that was orchestrated during this entire album.

Only some of the music didn't strike home for me otherwise I'd give it a higher rating. The production sound was well done and mixing definitely held true for this one, I especially think that there was some Hypocrisy melodic riffing going on here, at least from what I've heard of Hypocrisy's newer material. But still since they're in the same genre, the influences are endless. The vocals just own and I like how there were fluctuations in that department. The biggest portion that deserves recognition was the bloody damn well music. At times I felt some boredom though, however, that would only come about because of the mood that the setting is in.

Do yourself a favor and if you're a melodic death metal follower, YouTube some songs off of here to form your own opinion. I've stated mine and this release isn't a failure, it's a triumph. I was appalled to not hear more about this release by other metal friends of mine. Everything fit together and the music is the biggest reason for the grade that I gave it. Amazing riffing and aggression that's heard on this entire domination of metal. Remember, not all metal is created equal, which is a given, but give yourself a break and try to follow my words here not as empty ones, but sheerly a voice of reason when it comes to evaluating this output. Get it, it won't disappoint!

Rating: 8½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
07/24/2013 17:30