History of Armagedon dates back to 1986, when they formed. It wasn't easy to play metal music in Poland back then. With hard determination the band recorded two demos before their debut full length album 'Invisible Circle' (1993). The album opened doors to them, but the band split up in 1994.

But the fire was still burning in the hearts of guitarist Krzysztof "Krizz" Maryniewski and vocalist SÅ‚awomir "Slavo" Maryniewski, and they started to seek new members to the band in 2006. Old bassist Tomasz "Sooloo" Solnica rejoined the band, and in 2009 Armagedon returned with this, their sophomore full length platter 'Death then nothing'. So how does their death metal sound nowadays?

Old school, perfectly old school. But of course with somewhat updated production. The title track begins with eerie piano. Many a classic death metal album back in the early 1990's had a cool intro in them. However, soon disharmonic tremolo picking driven death metal steals the show. There's also heavier riffage to bang to. Armagedon are about riffs, varying rhythms and low grunted vocals. 'Dead Code' is not far from Vader's style, but it features good if sparse synthesizer work, too. 'Seeing Is Believing' is a tad more modern with its clean vocal chant and rhythmic work. 'Bed of Thorns' reminds of 90's Morbid Angel, moving away from Polish style for a few minutes. Armagedon keep things fast, up to blast beating, but things stay clear and comprehensible. Same goes with song structures, which work, but they do not feature any surprising twists. Plus, the vocals are very, very similar throughout the album.

Soundwise this is heavy, but the bass is a bit hard to be found under everything else. But louder the better, because it indeed is there. Packaging deserves thumbs up, because it harks back in the early 1990's, times before Adobe PhotoShop or whatever computer-generated pieces of "art" came to replace good artwork. I read in some interview with the band, that lyrical theme of the album is... Guess what?! Yep, death.

Armageddon win nothing in originality, but the songs are listenable. If Vader and Dies Irae style death metal is your cup of tea, you should give Armagedon a chance. There is still market for this kind of death metal.

Rating: 7 (out of 10)

Reviewed by Lane
04/19/2010

This Polish death metal band was founded in 1986, then broke up in 1994. They reunited in 2006 and put together a new onslaught of a release entitled 'Death then nothing'. The current members feature Sławomir Maryniewski on vocals, Krzysztof Maryniewski on guitar, Rafał "Ra.V" Karwowski on guitar, Tomasz Solnica on bass and Adam Sierżęga on drums.

The music features guitars that are heavily distorted and brutal sounding. Tremolo picked riffs with fast tempos mixed together with some slower parts and the use of synthesizers to augment the eerie music in a few instances. This band spews forth classic death metal with catchy tracks such as the title track and 'Blanket of Silence'. Definitely good songs to download.

There aren't that many leads on this release, only on a couple of the songs. Musically speaking, the band displays vintage death metal with these talented musicians. There really aren't any releases by this band to compare with except for their debut, which was released in 1993. It's good that they were able to reunite and put together a solid follow-up.

I really enjoyed the riffs of all different variety. These guys, even though they're veterans now, still know how to concoct death metal that is well played out. The songs are really memorable and innovative. That low end guitar sound is way well displayed and is technical. No matter which song that you choose, all of them are great, with many interesting outputs.

Vocal wise there isn't much variety - just low bellowing throat. The drums contain blast beats and plenty of double kick parts. Use of these techniques go well with the guitars. Every song contains at least some fast tempos; there really aren't many parts that are slower paced.

This production is solid sounding with each instrument mixed in well together. It isn't flat or poorly integrated. You can hear everything pretty clearly. A great job done here. It makes the listener want to hear this release undoubtedly. I am quite impressed that the band managed to choose a producer that did them some extreme justice.

The lyrics aren't featured on this release insert. However, it's safe to say that from the song titles, show that they don't have much else to sing about except death. This is of course a grim topic and it's a shame that they don't have their lyrical contents displayed for the public. There are no cover songs on this release. It's just over 32 minutes in length of classic Polish concocted death metal.

In summation, 'Death then nothing' is a strong comeback album that contains tracks that are heavy and intriguing. Again, not much variety in the vocal department, but still they managed to fit it well into the music. If you're interested in hearing some fresh death metal with a great production sound, then this release should be owned by all death metal fans.

Rating: 9 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
07/23/2010 17:20