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Occult > Of Flesh and Blood > Reviews
Occult - Of Flesh and Blood

Um... black/thrash metal ist krieg? - 80%

Cup_Of_Tea, October 27th, 2005

So, this is how Occult sounded before Rage To Revenge...
Surprisingly enough this release proves that this band had it even before, and in fair amounts too. Compared to The Enemy Within this album is godly, and while the mention album has some redeeming qualities, this is definetly a superior release.

There is one point in this album that doesn't actually appear on later ones, and that is the riffing. It's quite death metal oriented, but still of a very Slayerish sound. That's probably the main flaw of the album itself unfortunately - some of the riffs were heard before on a album named South Of Heaven. Yep, it borrows heavily off Slayer's catalogue, but still remains original enough for not being "just another copy".
The vocals are both here, the guys blackish ones, and the female death growls - surprisingly enough the female vocals are very well executed, not even close to the unfortunate Sinister albums.

So it all starts off with Parasite, and it pretty much shows the entire mood of the album from the starting riff. A very good, and thrashtastic song, with the amazing deathish main riff, it's one of my favorites on this album. Dreamsweeper is another highlight - starts off pretty slowly, building up to a mid-tempo thrash crusher. Doesn't get any faster than that, but it gets REALLY heavy, probably listened to Time Does Not Heal, and onderstood what heaviness is all about.
Stolen begins with a killer riff, and automatically becomes the best song on the album - it's goddamn lethal and brutal as fuck, with some good slow-fast tempo changes.
Two tracks stand out as more speedish numbers, simmilar to the songs on their RTR album - Oath In War and Doomsday Destroyer. Again great tempo changes occur, and most importantly brutality never fails to strike at your eardrums.
I'd probably mention one more track, Creatures Of The Night, the heaviest song on here. Sludgy, midpaced riffs and a crushing atmosphere. Speeds up at the end and finishes with probably the best solo on the album.
The solos are not insanely fast, nor something special, and if you ask me, this band really didn't even need them, which would prove true at their lastest album. Still, bad, or no solos, but with a gazillion amazing riffs is good enough for me.

Another very good release by Occult. For every black/death/thrash metal fan this is obligatory - a very enjoyable band with very few flaws and good riffwork. Recommended.