The third album from Polish death/black metallers Azarath is like a wicked legion of demons coming your way... fast and fucking hard! It is the audio equivalent of exactly that, and nothing less evil, believe me. No mercy given, really. Well, album's title and the cover do not lie, for once.

Vortexing and swarming riffs rip listeners in pieces. There are loads of malignant and savage chord structures and tremolo picking happening. Ominous open strings stuff and shrieking guitars are in, too. Sudden solo bits are performed, and often these actually sound like they were composed, not blurted out in a streak of total insanity. Thinking about sudden things, the compositions are at times highly mutable, and not into a direction that's expected from them. This can be, in a word, chaotic. One example is that when tempo gets even higher from already blasting-like-hell, it can get dizzying. But there are also some anthemic parts to strengthen the whole, especially towards the end. Well, these sound slow amongst all the blasting, even if they basically aren't!

The drums are absolutely busy, but still there are so much cymbal tricks and such happening. I wouldn't bet that they could perform this stuff exactly like this live... The bass guitar's rumble is audible in the mix, as the guitar tones are rather sharp. The vocals are beastly growling, and frequently there are more than one vocal track happening; for that demonic effect... While being extremely busy for a big part, the producers were able to make a balanced whole. Even more so, as the instruments were recorded in two studios by three engineers! Magnificent work.

'Diabolic Impious Evil' is like Krisiun (or Rebaelliun) at their most insane. As this contains those evil and otherworldly chord structures, this also reminds of Nile and Impiety. Maybe a bit of their countrymen Vader, which is more than expected.

Almost 33 minutes of aural hell is what Azarath presented with this platter. It's still varying enough, despite almost totally consisting of blasting tempos, plus entirely breathtaking performance-wise, and outright compelling. For fans of blasting death metal, this is a must! Vicious to the bone.

Rating: 9- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
01/27/2023 18:12