I've never really followed this band that closely, but here with 'Blood Mantra', I'm a firm fan of their music now. I like the energy of this album, especially the intensity. The whole album isn't blisteringly fast, they vary it. What sets this apart from other newer releases is the diversifying that they do. They also etch deep into creativity modes of songwriting. A total balls out fury of riffs thrown at you and the vocals deep throat, just not too deep. It fits with the music. The message here I think is that "we're gonna strike with a vengeance here!"

These guys lay thick toned axe-fury then some songs are a little toned down with merely a death metal groove to them. They cover a lot of different avenues here, the most ones to me that stuck out were the groove laden ones. The fast ferocious tunes I could follow, but they weren't as memorable as the groove ones. Towards the near ending tracks, it seems that they show some sort of Sepultura type riffing coming from 'Chaos A.D.' (1993) Not sure if that's what their aim was, but the vibe was there and it surely reflected that.

There really aren't too many leads on this album, the focal points were the music and changing things up starting out immense torture then leaving you thinking "hmmm, what was their reason why they let up on that intensity." I think that they mainly show this because they can prove themselves to be not only a death metal band, but a band that can do more than just annihilate your eardrums. Sound quality was superb and production equally as good.

When I first heard this a while ago, it didn't strike me as something that I wanted to touch on. But now listening to it, especially hearing the ending song got me thinking. My reason said "a definite boon to my collection."

This album is a couple years old now, but it still hits hard and home to death metal fans open to diversity.

Rating: 9 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
02/17/2016 11:42