Evil In came to life in 2019 and is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Charlie Murphy. He dropped the debut EP “An Ethereal Force Beyond” last year and has now teamed up with Steffen Banas who takes up drum and bass duties. New album, “Age Of Immortal Darkness” finds them harnessing the powers of evil to create a brief but sonically expressive journey.
The sinister atmospherics of “2347”, the intro track is a dark, sci-fi horror tinged soundtrack that bleeds into “Merciless Ancient Evil”. A frantic, heart pounding pull into darkness with hushed, growled vocals is full of bad intent. Tortured, off kilter guitar on “Demon Grave Robbers” give the track a swirling, Slayer like attack before the blackened rev up of “Holy Innocents Cemetery”.
The stand out cut for these ears is “Exo Possession”. A thumping, chunky riff leaning into doom territory kicks starts a second half of the album that is far more raw and gritty. They move away from the more atmospheric approach and become a far more feral beast.
“Salvage Or Die” is a true banger, dipping its toe into hardcore punk territory and has a real energy. The slower pace of “Destination Earth” gives it a crunchy, more introspective feel that segues well into the outro “Condition To Carnage”. A nice compliment to the intro, it is suitably bleak and hauntingly chilling with shades of Black Sabbath’s E5150.
With a super lean running time of around 25 minutes, “Age Of Immortal Darkness” manages to cover an impressive amount of territory. Moments of classic sounding death metal combine with enough atmosphere and suffocating moments of evil to darken anyone’s mood. By no means a challenging listen, this is an easy album to immerse yourself in and it shows a tight collaboration between the two musicians that will be worth keeping an ear out for in the future.
(7/10 Johnny Zed)
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