Impious Sacrilege

You may like it or not, but the exhumation of the old school death metal corpse – all its sounds: Swedish, US, Dutch, etc - is a fact and that current trend in the metal underground is, in my honest opinion also one of the best movements I’ve witnessed in many years. But you must realize that this rise of the dead has started not two or three years ago, but way earlier, as its first necromantic rituals were practiced when Hammerheart Records has released Repugnant's "Hecatomb" MLP in 2000. Then few years later another bands (mostly from Sweden) have debuted like Necrovation, with their excellent demo tape "Ovations to Putrefaction", mighty Kaamos with "Curse of the Aeons" demo and Delve with cool "The Dead Amongst" MCD (and from the other countries there were the likes such as Dead Congregation for instance). Delve has soon changed the moniker for Verminous and released two absolutely killer materials: an EP titled "Smell the Birth of Death" and an album titled "Impious Sacrilege", both from 2003. I was already running my fanzine at that time and I remember I got the "Impious Sacrilege" promo CD from Xtreem Music when it was release and man, I was just fuckin' blown away by that death metal massacre! It truly was one of my favourite albums of that time and I remember I was full of enthusiasm for it. OK, the band never answered my interview, but I liked them a lot anyway! So yeah, I think this new wave of rotten death metal has started way earlier than with the release of Daniel Ekeroth's book. But who cares, you would say? Well, I just wanted to remind you here the fact that Verminous was one of the first bands that have started to play this old school death metal again in the 00's, also because they seem to be criminally forgotten nowadays.

And now let's write something about the "Impious Sacrilege". First of all, just look at this amazing and blasphemous front artwork. Man, this one would look just killer on a t-shirt, I would love to wear it in this catholand called Poland! Deformed, rotten, mutilated zombie of unholy whore and her son, the beast... Fuckin cool! And it all fits perfectly to the blasphemous, sort of satanic lyrics the band has, such as “Kill the father of lies, drink the blood of Christ. See him slowly turn into an empty shell, join the legions of unholy war. Find the answers that you’re looking for, nothing will remain...” (“Of Evil Blood”) or “Desecrate - the denomination of god. Eviscerate - the one upon the cross. We descent ourselves in blasphemy, we'll raise in shape of pain…” (“Impious Genocide”). Fuckin’ cool, don’t you think? These are simple, but straight forward, insulting lyrics, the way I like and which fit this kind of music totally. Of course many of you may say they’re too primitive or whatever, but this style of music doesn’t need pretentious philosophies and ambitions. Keep it simple, old school, aggressive and blasphemous and the hell awaits for you.

For the musical aspects of “Impious Sacrilege” I would need to call forth one band mainly – and it is Repugnant. I don’t want to say that Verminous has been copying their nauseating friends, but surely both bands have been mainly taking their inspirations from the good old death metal scene and the likes of Treblinka, Nihilist, Possessed or Merciless (this one mainly for the quite clear raw thrash metal influence that is present in both bands), and so what we’ve got in the end was something truly characteristic and what both Repugnant and Verminous did in pretty similar way. Both bands were great anyway and as such “Impious Sacrilege” was filling up the empty space left by Repugnant in excellently. The album is just killer. The riffs are fuckin’ razor sharp, mutilating in very fast and extreme way, the whole is like a violent force, pure mayhem and devastation. The band never really compromises and thus the whole music is based on raw, pure old school death / thrash metal. Surprisingly, with all that chaos and brutality, the songs also have quite few hooks, like the one from "Spawn of Satan`s Curse" or “Of Evil Blood” for instance. But these mainly focus on a memorable chorus part, which let you memorize the songs more, as most of the music was played in slightly chaotic, relentless way. Apart from that, there are many excellent (not necessarily Swedish sounding) riffs, properly raw and dirty production and brilliant, vomiting furious vocal lines from Pelle Piss. Hell, I cannot wish for anything more, everything that “Impious Sacrilege” is comprised of is as it should be and so I believe this album is almost perfect. What’s more, the LP version is finished with Autopsy’s “Charred Remains” cover, what suits the whole great and I could only pick up what has remained of myself and play the album all over again to start the massacre once more. Great album, really.

Standout tracks: "Spawn of Satan`s Curse", “Of Evil Blood”, “Salvation by Extermination”

The release begins with a short intro. It isn't overly long, and contrasts well with the first song - a simple hokum horror style piano tune meandering a little (and for once actually sounding like a piano) with a little light synth ambience. Then the death/thrash onslaught begins. The style cannot really be compared to another band; it has the same death/thrash mix as Necrovation, but is taken to far more chaotic levels. The playing sounds at once out of control but also extremely tight during key moments, giving the impression of the band playing deliberately loosely. The vocals are strong rasping growls, sounding great when spitting out fast passages or in the occasional longer scream or grunt. The range isn't particularly large, but they're solid and fit perfectly. The drumming is strong, with some interesting fills and the bass adds to a great weight of sound, but without being too audible by itself.

The first song Spawn of Satan's Curse is outrageously good: it grabs you by the face and does not let go. Beginning with an obliterating blast, swiftly overlaid by a squealing guitar lead before a pummelling mid-tempo section (setting the seed for a riff which will be developed later) then speeds into the first vocal passage. This all happens in under the first 20 seconds of track. By the time the chorus has arrived, this album cannot be ignored. The relentless nature of the music, coupled by the high degree of structural interest and melodic appeal makes the band unusually compelling. A superb slower riff in the second half and an expertly placed blink-and-you-miss-it breakdown all confirm that this band has no interest in milking ideas, in fact many of the best ones come and go within seconds. Seemingly contrary to the instrumental diversity, the chorus of the song repeats quite a lot, but this only adds to the relentlessly unhinged nature of this out of control beast, each time it repeats, it crushes yet more.

That song is an ideal representation of the band's highly fucked and chaotic style. It is quite far from brutal death metal, as it contains not only a lot of melody, but also many changes in dynamics. The production is also absolutely filthy and perfectly fitting the music. Essentially it's old-school death metal with rabies. There could be some question over how long this formula will take before it wears out, but with an album almost the length of an EP, that is not a problem. This is superb music which leaves the listener wanting more.