On this album we find an Australian death metal outfit, and it is just the type of thing you'd expect to be put out on Repulse, old school brutal death metal. Although they do that well enough, they do nothing that would set them apart from the rest of the bands doing that, nothing that tells me that I am listening to Abramelin and not some faceless death metal band from the masses, and it leaves me feeling nothing. There isn't anything wrong with it really, but there is nothing that can be found here that can't be found on countless other albums as well, actually it is a solid death metal piece, but there is little innovation, and no that doesn't mean incorporating dozens of abstruse genres, not much that goes beyond what is the standard. They seem to have the ability to play well, but I'd say they need to work a bit on their song writing. There is however a demeaning factor here, which is the last track which is a cover version, and admittedly I am not a fan, nor do I even like Dead Can Dance, but Abramelin's cover version of their song Cantara is really well done and sounds quite good. They made the song sound really interesting, something which Dead Can Dance couldn't do for me, but then again, listening to an entire album like this I would not be interested in, it functions well as a single track.

© 1999 sharund