This is the third album by the Bangladesh-born Obliterator, now residing in Germany, where a recent move from Magdeburg to Berlin had him approach Incinerate drummer Alex Simpson to lay down the drum tracks for these seven songs, while he took care of everything else.

The album opens with “Awakening The Inner Alchemy I”, which kicks things off with a throaty roar followed by blistering drum blasting and extremely fast guitar riffing that eventually tempers down to a heavier but slightly more manageable pace.

Title track “Visions Of A Plague Ridden Sky” has the guitars and drums racing along while the vocals growl along at half speed to maintain a touch of melody before a bridge slows everything down completely letting the long roars over the rolling drums and riffs fade into the flurry of Spanish guitars.

Matan Goldstein’s slow percussion on instrumental “Hourglass Of Decadence I” has a tribal flair to complement the acoustic saz as Obliterator strums it energetically to effect.

The vocals are spat out on “From The Depths Of Duat” as the guitars wind their way through their various melodious movements, accompanied by tom rolls and incessant kick drumming that would cause shelves to lose all their books if played at a high enough volume.

Feeling like a far more straightforward death song, “Grand Evisceration” ploughs along at a good pace while a second guitar adds a melody to the vicious chugging of the main riff before breaking out in a lead break playing impeccably and at high speed.

The second instrumental, “Hourglass Of Decadence II” has a beautiful middle eastern flavour to the twanging saz to go with a deeper percussive sound as the all too brief song concludes and final track “Awakening The Inner Alchemy II” begins with slow clean picking and an exquisite bass melody, before the picking becomes tremoloing to up the ante with the bass line continuing as the growls take up the mantle.

Although it’s not a terribly long album, its ferocity makes up for the fact, as you don’t need the songs to drag on unnecessarily when played at this pace.

(8/10 Marco Gaminara)

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