Formed in the harsh month of December back in 1991, Melodic death metal band ‘Immortal Souls’ were put together by Finnish brothers Esa and Aki Sarkioja. They recorded their first demo back in 1993 yet unfortunately it was never legitimately released. Another Demo was recorded in 1997 called ‘Reflections of Doom’ followed by a split CD in 1999 ‘Divine Wintertime – Through The Woods Towards The Dawn’. A year later an EP ‘The Cleansing’ was released. During the next seven years’ three albums were recorded including ‘Wintereich’ in 2007. Now they’re on their fourth full length album ‘IV The Requiem for the Art of Death’.
Art of Death Act I Soulbells
Thinking at first I was about to hear Trevor Macdonald for the news at ten, luckily it changed into a beautiful intro with some soothing riffage then moves straight in with the first track ‘Evil Believer’. The drumming is quite superb and the riffs are stupendous! The vocals perfect (think Angela Gossow) and growly. The guitar solo an insane piece and you can hear clearly the guitarists fingers flirting all over the fret board! Straight away it’s giving me a good feeling about this one.
‘Nuclear Winter’ is not as growly as the previous track, but still equally as impressive. The lyrics have Finland written all over them with “Cold wind of north, the killers breathe, I hear the thunder from somewhere far, I feel the wave and scent of a grave, As I see darkness spread on the sky” Bleak!. Again another amazing guitar solo that would make even Michael Romeo (Symphony X) a tad weak at the knees. ‘I wept’ has two different kinds of catchy riffs, one bouncy and one which I can only describe as perfect music to drive to.’ Absolution’ The last track on the first part of the CD (Seems to be in three parts for some reason) is a track with more splendid lyrics of death and destruction. The riffs raw and in your face with Sinister tones.
Art of Death Act II The last Journey
A peaceful intro starts the second part of the cd, then in with one of the filthiest, brutal, dirty riffs I have ever heard, added to that, some punky drumming and the vocals sounding better than the rest of the tracks which just gets more insane and better by the second! The guitarist is obviously one talented bastard with yet another out of this world solo. The drumming gets faster and makes me want to start windmilling around the room; unfortunately I’d probably strangle myself with the headphones.
I can’t seem to fault anything on this album, but another couple of favourites to mention are; ‘Thoughts of Desolation’ due to the military style drumming. Not only that though, even though I have to repeat myself…. the guitarist obviously has had no childhood and had his fingers super glued to a guitar at an early age… I’m telling you! Then there’s ‘Requiem of the Funeral Eve’ on the third part, which contains some depressively mournful riffs and equally depressive vocals on … yup you guessed it, Death!.
I can’t say a bad thing about this band; talent comes from every crevice in both musical composition and playing. It’s exactly what’s been missing from new bands. (As above they have been going since 1991 but as I will openly admit I’ve never heard of them, I’m classing them as new). The CD cover fitting, with a black and white picture of an overgrown cemetery. Go buy this!
(9/10 Charlene Rance)
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