This was a thoroughly enjoyable album. It’s the third full length album by the Dutch quintet who formed 22 years ago. Blending thrash and melodic death metal very effectively, the album has plenty of intensely rapid passages combined with flowing melodic meanders to give a varied and diverse soundscape. Along with this we have a couple guest performances to enhance songs by using these outside talents.
The album starts off on a strong note on “Rise Of The Sycophants” with Menno Ruijzendaal and Fabian Verweij filling my ears with heavy guitar riffs that meld well together and enhance Sean Maia’s vocals, whether they are growls on the verses or clean choruses.
The guest solo by Damir (Destruction) on “Demonic Firenado” fits perfectly with the song as it does have a bit of a whirlwind frenzy to its delivery, which to be fair so does Arthur Stam’s drumming as he appears to be racing around the kit beating it for all its worth.
More mid-tempoed with an aggressive guitar riff accompanied by a far more melodic second riff, “Designed To Violate” also has two contrasting vocals, with both the slow death vocals and faster clean being used effectively to add to the song dynamics.
“Instigate To Annihilate” on the other hand uses minimal fuss to just pound you with a fast beat over a chunky rhythm guitar as the deep growls that remind me a little of Face Down, and that’s certainly not a bad thing at all.
While Vicky Psarakis (The Agonist) flicks between eloquent clean and harsh vocals to combine perfectly with Sean’s growls on “Wrecked”, it’s Frank van Boven’s bassline that’s the star of the show for me here.
Arthur’s deceptively simple drum pattern on “No Moral Dignity” belies the impressive amount of footwork being done during the rolling on the toms, to build a complete wall of sound behind which the guitars and vocals have to fight to gain their spotlight.
The hardcore vocal cadence on “Destroyance”, which has an accompanying clip, gives the chorus a catchy sing along feel that is also very bouncy, while the lead solos rip along ignoring them completely.
A beautiful acoustic intro flows into a gorgeous lead, before “Sicario” breaks in with a roar and a heady drum beat over the flowing guitar rhythm.
Slowing things down completely to give a hauntingly atmospheric texture to the lead solo as it plays over the far more allegro sounding guitar riff, “A Dying Fall” is the first instrumental the band have apparently recorded.
They album ends with “The Final Trumpet”, where Charlotte Wessels (Ex-Delain) provides her exquisite operatic vocals as a complete contrast to Sean’s low growls and lets the more epic soundscape feel more suitable than it would have otherwise.
What’s great about the album too, is that at no point does it become monotonous after repeated listens as there are so many variations in each song, while still being cohesive enough to still be an album rather than just a collection of songs.
(8/10 Marco Gaminara)
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