By: Anders

Posted: Nov 2, 2005

Death metal with the certain old school touch and atmosphere which makes one think, this release was made years ago, but still with a crushing production and elements which indicates it's a newer release. The latter is correct, this is the debut full length from the Danish force Usipian and they are offering us a display of driven death metal with old school tendencies in a modern packing.

The compositions are varied, nice displays of mid-paced crushing and faster slayings, weaved nicely into each other. The riffs are great as well, again nicely alternated, there are melodic riffs, plain and effective ear-catchers and more technical guitar playing and a good lead here and there. The bass is rumbling below the wall of guitars and are delivering some good noise. The drumming is straight in your face, again nice and varied work, not a tam or cymbal go unused and there are some killer drum breaks as well, at times straight forward and gripping and at other times technical and neck-breaking. The vocal is a deep and ferocious growl from the bowels of hell, the growling has a nice not too forced pace, so it's easy to follow the lyrics, and the pronunciation is great as well.

The production of the album is well made, a crushing thick sound, the instruments are well placed in the sound picture and not many details are lost in the sonic hell the band delivers. The sound is reflecting the overall dark and eerie atmosphere in the music very well, and adds an extra dimension to the music.

This is a must have for fans of dark and heavy death metal, these Danes will make a great impact on you and your surrounding world. Yet a band with an extremely well made debut album and a great future ahead of them. The band has used quite some years to get this album, or at least the material thereon ready, and it has paid off. This is one of the albums I for sure will remember from this ungodly year!

Rating: 8½/10

Print