ALBUM REVIEW: Imprecation – Damnatio Ad Bestias

Fresh release from Dark Descent Records! The new IMPRECATION album. Promising to be some of the most bludgeoning, filthy Death Metal and set for release on March 22nd, this looks to be a gruesome album.

1. Temple Of The Foul Spirit drops us right in with doomy riffs and a hideously crushing soundscape of churning guitars, slow tempo drums and a killer production that allows the raw violence to bludgeon us with grooving Death Metal madness. The vocals are perfectly gruesome over the gorgeously convulsive guitars and drums. There is a killer mixture of old school and modern styles used within the material that allows for a dismally dark yet crushingly brutal approach to things. The sense of morbidity and more slowly paced horror is stunningly put together with excellent songwriting. The faster sections add whiplash attacks to the music, perfectly chaotic and well balanced with the slower parts. The use of flangers was a really unique and awesome touch too. A brilliant opening track.
2. Morbid Crucifixion fires out more grinding and menacing riffs over blasting drums with frenzied growls and a totally devastating soundscape is created once more. This track is actually rather catchy and upbeat before driving into wonderfully rich sounding doomy sections with some glorious riffs. We are then pummelled by grooving and punchy riffs and drums with some epic vocal work too. The lead guitars really add a nice flash of technicality while remaining dark and not overzealous. Another fantastic piece.
3. Baptized In Satan’s Blood smoulders right into more frenzies of pure Death Metal insanity. The furious vocals over decimating instrumentals creates a hideously well composed Death Metal storm, a concoction of brilliant musicians making something totally grisly and evil. The demonic growls of the vocalist really match to perfection with the blistering guitars and pummelling drums. There is a slight touch of melodic work to the guitars with the riffs that breaks up the pure ferocity of the tremolo picked sections nicely but without losing any momentum. A monstrous sounding piece of music!
4. Beasts Of The Infernal Void blasts right into some absolutely gnarly riffs that sound exactly how classic Death Metal should. The slamming drums and dry grunts of the vocalist capturing the mood of the song stunningly. The rhythmic flourishes of the guitars work nicely to create a crawling effect, foreboding and truly dark. The blistering assaults conjure up catatonically crushing worship of the true Death Metal spirit, gloriously so. The solo on this track was absolutely insane too. Excellent work!
5. Damnatio Ad Bestias starts off with a more Black Metal feel to the introduction with synths and ambient screams, a really unsettling addition to the album. The menacing guitars rejoin followed by punchy drums ready to snap the necks of any doubters. The gut-wrenching assaults are some of the darkest yet from the album with a dungeon-like cavernous sound to the instruments and vocals alike. The chaos and hatred summoned within this piece are unrelenting and truly make for an obliterating piece of music, with a suitably frenzied guitar solo. The upbeat sections sounded like a storm of demons, totally awesome. Gloriously done!
6. Dagger, Thurible, Altar Of Death slows things down to more of a doomy crawl, allowing momentum to rebuild and growing the atmospheric side of things. The impacting opening growl sets things up to drop into more ferocious Death Metal with assaults drums, thrashing guitars and maniacal howls. The sheer fury that is interwoven with slower, more melodic parts gives us an unpredictable, volatile experience that is both unique and captivating. Another absolutely blistering solo appears on this track, loved it. The slower, doomy parts really accentuated the heaviness and atmosphere to a fantastic level. Great work, yet again!
7. The Shepherd And The Flock follows up with more doomy riffs, sample church bells and some gristly instrumental hammering that has the full atmosphere of a classic horror movie. The slow tempo tremolo sections with primal drums and growls creates an incredibly menacing soundscape of truly morbid and horrific visionary Death Metal. This song has a few touches of technicality, not in a pretentious or obnoxious way but that really lighten things up for a quite quirky piece. The bands use of more diverse sounds is one of the things that is really setting this release apart from the other Death Metal bands currently, especially on songs like this, I respect that. Really enjoyed the short whammy oriented solo too. Killer track!
8. Ageless Of None is the finale to this album. Blasting into crunchy riffs and brutal drums, this piece is, of course, as menacing as ever. Melodic grooves and touches of dissonance allow this last track to really stand on its own two feet rather than some cheap outro. The blistering ferocity of the vocals over gruesome guitar, bass and drums is epic enough, but with the addition of simple synths to add one last unique element, they really crush it. This album has had everything, but in a way that works seamlessly well together, this song being a great statement to that. A momentous masterpiece of crushing chugs, aggressive maniacal blasts, doomy grooves and just killer songwriting. A truly fantastic closing track, for an absolutely wicked album.

A vitriolic and crushing opus of Death Metal, mixing elements both old school and modern for a well rounded and obliterating assault. An odiously atmospheric yet aggressive and driven slab of truly hideous, beautiful music. -9/10