What a killer release by Johnny Dove's one-man-band featuring some guest musicians as well! This album is balls out intensity fury with the screaming vocals that transition to death metal bellows. This LP I ended up getting because I checked it out first and it definitely was appealing. Not too many releases in their discography... but the albums that have been released seemed to make par. I think the guitars are a bit complex distortion everywhere though some clean guitar was featured briefly on a few tracks. Hard to play favorites song-wise, I thought what a valiant effort coming out of Johnny's intricate influences that reflect his melodic death/black metal genres from Chicago!

This whole album was interesting what's come out sounding like such aggression with that key In Flames sort of power from say 'The Jester Race' and weaved into his own making. I like the vocal trade-offs on songs. Definitely makes it a more killer output.

The mixing was decent even though it was an independent label. For the first few listens, it was muddy to me until I listened more closely to everything this computer was able to play even though it was online that I played it on and CD that I purchased on Johnny's bandcamp page.

I like how there are some tracks which reflect that absolute distinction from melodic death to black metal. I don't have the lyrics so I've not connected to this album on that level just the overall vibe from it. This guy spent a lot of time constructing a lot of what he brought to the plate on here. It's taken a lot of time to get this follow-up from their previous release 'Within the Recesses'. More than 6 years have passed since that one was out. Not much feedback about it, I'm guessing it's similar in influences. But I like then fact that he weaves the influences into his own. Definitely worth checking out definitely show support for the scene and Johnny as a thriving musician that has a wealth of creativity.

To keep the scene active and supporting this band is something to do because he's amassed a monument here. You won't regret it!

Rating: 9 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
02/04/2024 22:31