In
the promotion material for this sixth album from Swedish Impious,
it’s called death/thrash metal, and as I’m not mad keen on the
death-stuff (to me it generally sounds like everybody’s supposed to
play as fast as humanly possible, and a guy with a throat disease
growls some not understandable guttural sounds) my expectations were
not sky high. But were I surprised? Yes indeed!
This is much more thrash style the hard way; mixed with elements of
death, doom, hardcore, and even parts with acoustic guitar. The very
varied style of composing makes the album interesting almost all the
time through all 10(+1) tracks. They kick off with something that
reminds me of old Testament with a melody, moving on to walking
tempo on the title track and ends up in the fast lane at the end of
the album, all the time keeping true to the general sound and style
of the band.
Most of the recordings are made in their own studio, and the sound
is great and very professional, leaving room for all to be heard,
and to play their part. I’m not impressed by the shouter/growler
though – to me he has pretty much the same “tone” of voice and
phrasing the whole record through, but the rest of the guys really
deliver: a strong rhythm section, both rhythmic and melodic guitars,
and very nice solos, so the general impression is very good.
This is a concept album of a day in a religious twisted serial
killers life. The very bloody story is underlined and supported by
voice actors for the speaking parts, and in the booklet that is made
like a comic book, illustrated in airy paintings by Italian horror
comic artist Andrea Cavalatto, with the lyrics in speech balloons –
a very original idea that works really well with the concept. In
this concept the music, the lyrics and the artwork works together to
give a joint experience.
Recommended tracks: "The Confession", "Holy Murder
Masquerade" and "Three Of One".
