Desolate Shrine
Tenebrous Towers ()
Wydane przez Hammer Of Hate RecordsRok wydania Kraj FinlandNapisał Wouter8
With no history or notable membership to speak of (except for early Finnish death metal act Lie In Ruins' Roni Sahari) and formed in 2010 - only a year prior to this debut, Finnish atmospheric death metal combo Desolate Shrine are something of an enigma. "Tenebrous Towers" is a hulking titan of a doomy death metal record that recalls, at least in parts, the likes of Bolt Thrower, Cenotaph (Mexico) Dismember, Runemagick and Incantation ("Mortal Throne Of Nazarene") with a dash of razorsharp black metal riffing and the occasional blast section. The majority of the material is written around the slow crawling funereal riffs that used to characterize early Finnish death metal. The reliance on these slow building parts emphasizes the fast sections when they appear and they are much more powerful because of it. The demonic and trollish vocals are equal parts (early) Asphyx as Obituary, seen in a black metal context. The gritty production is firmly in the early 1990's with a buzzsaw guitar tone, audible bass guitar and earthy sounding drums. The artwork, design and packaging for this debut are nothing if not professional and gloomy. The front artwork in particular perfectly captures the desolation, darkness and doom that this record consists of. It's good to see Hammer Of Hate moving out of their black metal comfort zone and signing some quite impressive death metal acts from the Land of a Thousand Lakes. Hopefully this will mark the return of a more traditionalist, doom-laden resurgence of the European death metal sound.
www.hammer-of-hate.com
