Foretold...Foreseen

Turns out that Prophecy is up there with, I dunno, Carnage, Mayhem, Leviathan and a few other band names that people really oughta google before they make it their band name. It just occurred to me that I have a surprising amount of Prophecies on my computer, so let's do a review series! Yay.

This relatively unknown but (so I'm told) rather sort after effort is a pretty unique and enjoyable bit of kinda-brutal, kinda breakdowny death metal. It caught my attention on a recent road trip- a friend of mine plays a lot of brutal death metal while he drives and a pretty huge amount of it tends to blur into one long blur of blasts and gurgles, but this record is remarkably catchy. I tend to wonder what our in-car conversation would sound like to someone unused to the band name tropes within the genre-
"Is this Aborted Remains?"
"Nah, it's Guttural Secrete"
"Oh. Sounds similar to Amputated Genitals, though, doesn't it?"
"Nah, that's the Columbian stuff. You know, Masturbation, Anal Impalement and the like"
- perhaps in the realm of music Prophecy play in, their band name is actually quite fresh and unique!

I think a big part of said unique-ness lies in the catchiness here. Apparently one of the guitars is in a fairly well known Metallica cover band and you can really tell, I wouldn't say it's "melodic" in an In Flames-ish sense but there's a lot of very infectious grooves and rhythmic patterns- bit of Pantera here as well I reckon. Core of Depressions has some of the catchiest breakdowns you'll ever hear, Diggin' a Pit- it's lyrical caught-in-a-mosh-isms perfectly suited for the churning CC-loving riffs that cover most of the song. Essentially every song here has a large amount of really catchy riffs, whether it's a rocking mid-paced one, some cheerful blasting, a d-beat, etc. I know I'm beating a dead horse, but it's a really huge part of the appeal here- near on everything gets stuck in your head. Everything is, simply put, really solid- the riffs, catchy, the leads, sparsely used but to great effect when they do pop into the mix, the vocals used for best effect and delivered with conviction.

So there's that, and then there's a real tendency towards variety- certainly Prophecy have the basic elements of songwriting nailed. Not to say that there's arty left turns into early 30's Latvian Jazz, but some of it crushes, there's some surprisingly classy clean interludes (the intro to the track "Prophecy"- surprisingly well done), some of it (Inner Reality being an excellent example) goes for a brisk, really hard rocking vibe, all amidst the usual blast/breakdown/double time changes that underpin general death metal structure. Prophecy also have a go at delivery songs which are llonger than the usual DM fare- 3 songs here going for longer than 6 minutes- and generally pull it off well.

This is a good album, a fun album, one of those bands that are well within their niche while still doing something cool and unique. Certainly not a life changing album, but if you're looking for an thoroughly enjoyable album that'll wreck your neck and leave you with a smile on your face you could do far, far worse.

This was the CD that introduced me to Death Metal. I heard it once at my friend’s house and from then onwards I liked Death. And now I finally have it. This CD has lots of catchy and chunky riffs with fast double bass, blast beats or groovy beats backing them up. The grunts are deep while the screams are extremely biley.

On the whole they resemble a lot Dying Fetus and Dehumanized. They repeat very often and that may give them a sort of monotonous aspect. The first and last song both start with clean guitars. They are done pretty well, since the contrast when entering into the heavy riffs is really effective. If one listens to the whole CD he will notice a bit of a surprise at the end of the final track.On the whole the production is good. Sound quality is more then passable whilst the inlay is great. This is a great CD to chill back and listen to. Two horns up.