Total Regression!

Dirty and just bloody outrageously wicked riffing starts the album off, before the arse-shredding vocals set in. This has to be the best Throneum material I’ve heard, and the only contribute with two original tracks. The rest are covers of Destruction, Impaled Nazarene, Unleashed and Morgoth. But the entire recording just reeks of evildoing. This is as old school as it gets; blackened, thrashing death metal with marvellous screaming vocals. What else do you need, it’s Throneum damn it!

It’s not easy to fill the gap of Throneum as track six ends, but newcomers Revelation of Doom do their best. “Let them burn for all eternity, in the flames of hell”, a man says, and the churning begins. A rather slow opening track, where heavy riffing does the speaking. Sure, it’s definitely old school, but it’s a tad boring song in the long run. I do wish for a few more tempo changes, but they make up for that with "Holy grail, holy flesh". The deep, burly vocals are not something you hear everyday, and they fit perfectly into the recipe. The following tracks are covers of Hellhammer, Terrorizer, Sodom, Pandemonium and Blasphemy. Since I’ve never heard Revelation of Doom before it would’ve been nice with a few more original tracks, to really get the feel for ‘em. But I do think they can satisfy the die-hard old school death metal fan. For me, the Throneum tracks are more to my taste.

Originally written for www.mylastchapter.net

Throneum and Revelation of Doom are two black/death metal bands (with a strong penchant for thrash) with a mission; what that mission is however, I honestly don’t know. This split clocks in at a little over 37 minutes, and features only four original songs (two by each band). The other nine songs end up being covers of some world renowned thrash, death, and black metal bands.

Both bands sound similar in that the atmosphere produced by the both of them is dirty and remorseless. Revelation of Doom though is by far the tighter sounding of the two bands, sounding more comfortable playing their genre with a ferocity that isn’t matched easily (or, to be precise, mostly not at all) by Throneum. This however brings up a personal question that could only be answered by Throneum themselves: With the Destruction cover being the best piece of material released on the split, why not play metal more in the vein of blackened thrash?

This split is really a tribute split, with the band showing their respect to the old school by covering their material the best they can; this works in some instances, and doesn’t in others. In the end though, the real question is whether you want to buy an album of covers or original material? (6.2/10)