Scales of Leviathan

I remember that I’ve found out about this piece of vinyl by accident, when I’ve been checking some news about Kaamos around the time, when they were just to release “Scales of Leviathan”. And of course I wouldn’t be myself, if I didn’t want to purchase a copy of the LP version, as soon as it was available. And so I did, which I’m very happy about nowadays, knowing how difficult is this, as well as all other Kaamos vinyls, difficult to get nowadays. This mini album comes on 12”LP, but the music is just on one side of the record (side B has no music, there’s just a graphic on it). And there’s a huge poster, but it looks rather poorly, plus an insert with the lyrics and some additional graphics (I like the layout of it a lot!). So, I can say that the LP looks quite effectively, but it’s the music, what counts most of corpse. But that aspect surprised me even more, as in my opinion “Scales of Leviathan” is the best release in short Kaamos discography!

It kicks off with the title song and I must say that “Scales of Leviathan” is just a killer tune, it’s definitely the best track for me from all, which Kaamos has composed ever. It is just fantastic, the riffing in it is superb, with many great, aggressive parts, killer atmosphere and there’s of course also this chorus part, where you just need to scream “Scalesssss of Leeeeviathaaaaannnn”, banging along with more doomy riffage, so lovely infectious and devastating it is!!!!!!!!! I’m crazy about this song, really, it’s one of those tracks, which could be played on my funeral, if I was going to choose some. Then “Darkness Awaits” begins just like an old Morbid Angel song, from their early albums! The riffing is quite similar, thick and slashing, with this great vibe and even slightly resembling sound and only Karl’s vocals distinguish Kaamos from the good old Morbid Angel. Yeah, all in all – we are all morbid, right? And really, when I hear the opening riff of “Blood Has Stained the Cross” I also have a feeling like it’s very close to say “Maze of Torment”. Anyway, Kaamos has enough guts and talent to create something own, so even if there’s a part, which reminds me Morbid Angel, then next one will be very different and all in all I can easily recognise that this is Kaamos playing, with their characteristic sound, some specific riffs and rhythmic and also due to very characteristic vocals of Karl!

“Scales of Leviathan” offers five tracks in total, circling around 20 minutes. Along with the three killer tunes that I mentioned above, there’s also one song, which fits the whole material perfectly, but which at the same time sounds very different to the rest of the material. This song is called “Spiritual Funeral” and is really slow, doomy, has an eerie, sinister atmosphere and a lot of surprises, but I must say that even though it differs so much form the rest of Kaamos material, I like it a lot. Somehow it’s also quite cool feeling that such epic and mournful doom death metal song ends the last chapter (maybe??) in the Kaamos history. You can call it a funeral march in many ways! Anyway, I love “Scales of Leviathan”, it is truly a superb release and I can only honour Kaamos for deciding to quit with their best material, never wimping out and without unleashing poor music.

Given both the connotations and existing musical output associated with the word "Leviathan", you're setting yourself a fairly high target by implementing said word. This posthumous EP from Swedes Kaamos is in some respects appropriately named.

Crunching Swedish death metal of the fairly brutal kind is the order of the day here. A muddy yet audible Swedish production a la Unleashed drives the releases fuzzy low end riffs and beastly death growl. All in all this a gritty, if slightly uninspiring release that has its moments. The dominating chorus of the title track is suitably heavy whilst the thrashing charge of 'Seven Demons' and Slayer-esque solo of 'Blood Has Stained The Cross' will get your head banging. Closer 'Spirtual Funeral' is a pleasant surprise, taking the form of a doomy, trill riddled Black Sabbath homage that's incentive enough to check out the back catalogue.