Lord of Storms

Bah, I'm surprised this one has no reviews. Slow, chugging death metal is what's on offer here - a nice change from the usual crop of bands who think speed = devastation. An even nicer change, in fact, when one considers that only Demigod and a couple of other bands have ever warranted the word 'crushing' more than these guys.

Vore wrap downtuned melodies around ominous, intense rhythmic work to create relentless and wholly satisfying DM, worthy of great praise despite not being hugely innovative. Indeed, this has a blatant old-school vibe, with quite a few thrashy riffs, and parts which wouldn't sound too out of place on an old Swedish record. Keep in mind that it very rarely even approaches what most would consider to be 'fast', though.

There's a lovely (not so) little progressive acoustic piece named "Opaque" towards the end of the recording - always interesting and useful in providing contrast, as well as showing us that Vore's ability has a larger range than it otherwise might appear. They also experiment with keyboards quite a bit in the latter half of the album - the intro to the awesome beast "Primordial Conquest" bringing Summoning to mind.

The vocals are typically guttural, but he manages to give it such power that it takes nothing away from the recording except any lack of intensity it had left. Obviously, the syncopated rhythm-work between the guitars and drums is what drives the piece. Production-wise, it's very much deadened, downtuned and downright heavy - the vocals and in particular the guitars are dominant, but every instrument is utterly forceful and clear.

In summary, the great majority of bands looking for heaviness in their music are pummelled into the ground by this. Top-of-the-range, slow/mid-paced, rhythm-orientated, compositionally tight death metal. Not massively unique, but who cares? It kicks ass!