Aggressor... Now that's not the best of names to choose for your metal band because there are, or has been, plenty of them already. But, all fans of heavy 1990's death metal, it is time to wake up and feel... ummm... aggressive! From Estonia came a band offering some cool juggernaut-aggression. At least this debut album, 'Procreate the Petrifactions', is such a vehement beast.

Benediction's 'The Grand Leveller' and Massacre's 'From Beyond' both came out in 1991, and it is easy to imagine that they could have been closely inspected by Aggressor guys, as it feels like the savage occultism heard on 'Procreate the Petrifactions' could have been drawn from them. This is similar to Disincarnate's 'Dreams of the Carrion Kind', that also came out in 1993. And some slower pieces do sometimes remind about Asphyx or Obituary... This album is literally a product of its time, simple as that.

There's some twistedness in guitar playing, but it's not quite as warped as, for example, Demigod were on their debut album. It is a very bass-heavy tone with power chords and notes, with both slow and fast playing. Yet still this features some mind-destabilising chord formations, otherworldly guitar solos and occasional horror-inducing synthesizer swooshes and carpet-sounds call forth the preternatural draughts from the abyss. Some riffing is pure grindcore (just like some of the lyrics), so it fluctuates between streetwise and numinous. The vocals are guttural low growling, with some gurgling sounds.

The band almost constantly push on forward like a warmachine. That's helped by sturdy double kick drumming, together hefty bass guitar which has some farty distortion turned on. When the pace gets slow, the brutality simply changes its face, and does not diminish or vanish. It's a heavy sound on this one, and the album is close to 50 minutes long, so it's not a stroll through a park. Thankfully, there's quite a variety of beats and tempos (cymbal tricks, oh yeah!), so it's not all same, but it could have been made a tad more compact. However, the longest song 'Wrong Faith', which hits the mark of 7 minutes, contains enough of different parts... Well, those who buy it will get money's worth!

The band did release their sophomore platter, 'Of Long Duration Anguish', in 1994, and come back twice (1995 and 2015), but then, nothing... While this was nothing different or special in bulldozing death metal back in 1993, this is very much worth the effort for any fan of the genre. Massive and destructive! This was reissued (with the 1991 demo) by Dark Symphonies in 2018, and seems to be available.

Rating: 8½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
12/13/2023 12:43