Erebos - Heretic

13 years after their second release, the Austrian war machine is set loose once again. Blackened death metal is their poison, with the cradle leaning more in favor of the death metal half and this is obvious from the first second. No intros and no unnecessary fuzz. 'Killing Spree' breaks the silence and all we get is a straight to your face old school death metal riff followed by the appropriate blast beat. Seconds after the first impact a short break and a groovy mid-section enters sending us back to the glorious European death metal days. Entombed, Unleashed, Grave and so many other bands can be called as a reference. All of them though are not taking away anything from the originality of what comes out of the speakers.

Second song underway and the torch is carried from where the previous one left it. A kind of At he Gate-ish riff is the main theme and then the song builds upon that. The song constructions are not technical but on the same time not simple. The melodic chorus tends to bring forth the black metal side of it all. What is really important here is how these fellas manage to bind all these influences together into one genre. I mean you get all those bands here and there but on the same time you get a cohesive song that carries a perfect balance of them all.

The hearing proceeds and it gets perfectly clear that Erebos have established their own mark here. Fat and heavy guitar riffs sending us back to the 90s, followed by a thick bass guitar and relentless drums that tend to keep everything together, sometimes blasting their way and others simply being groovy. All this, enriched by melodic riffs and minor chords giving their death metal, a black metal aura. Vocals couldn't be better. Typical but soooo fitting growls for the genre occasionally doubled by black-ish shrieks but still: the death metal element is dominant. Production-wise the album is exactly however it should sound. Clear enough so that everything can be heard loud and clear and on the same time muddy enough so they can preserve that dark atmosphere they want their album to reek off.

"Heretic" lasts about 30 minutes and consists of 8 songs. Which means about 3:30 average duration per song. The perfect one if you ask me considering the fact that each song contains all the elements mentioned above. A perfect flow to them as well succeeding on another in a great tempo giving the album a great continuum, taking away a possible boredom. Summing up I can honestly say that "Heretic" is not an easy one to listen. You have to give it many hearing sessions and it will eventually get you. A great third album from band that still has a lot more to give.

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1. Killing Spree
2. Suffocation
3. Return To Castle Blunzngrestl
4. Gallery Of Pandemonium
5. Putrid Flesh
6. Kingdom Of Strangulation
7. Harbinger
8. Pestilence