Dethroned starts off the track list with their brand of blasting death metal. Guttural vocals accompany muted and tremoloed riffs and frantic blast-beats. The tempo goes from fast to surprisingly rapid when the drummer turns on his turbo. The pillar of their sound is their walloping weight. Each song packs a punch and leaves you with images of giants crushing whole armies and ravaging towns in the winter snow. The image gains strength from the vocals, because they really sound like an irate Jotun. Dethroned were always fun to see live, especially when they growl out their song titles before each count-off. Their intensity is amped even more on stage, and they entice head banging very well. They are definitely one of the more brutal bands Colorado has ever produced—death metal with no time for frivolous melodies or solos.
Excommunion continues the album with their more fuzzy sound, which is reminiscent of heavy black metal if you disregard the croaking vocals. Unfortunately, Excommunion have less interesting riffs and melodies than Dethroned and quickly reminds of how boring so much uninspired death metal is. The low point of their side of the split is definitely the vocal work, which gets irritating before you’re halfway through their songs. The last two songs pick up a bit because of the added higher vocals and some more varying song structure and more gripping riffs, but it definitely cannot compete with the Dethroned half.
Though both bands are dissolved now, this split is a great remnant of their brutality.
7/10
Comments
"images of giants crushing whole armies and ravaging towns in the winter snow.'"
ahhahh so awesome!
And that album cover rules
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