Liber ZarZax

Not so long ago I wrote few words about Centurian's debut and best album "Choronzonic Chaos Gods". Now it's time to do the same with their second full length, "Liber Zar Zax" from 2001. It's highly recommended album, for me personally these two Centurian albums belong to the best death metal releases of early 00's (and a decade later, after reformation, they did another killer record "Contra Rationem"!). I love that sheer violence and intensity of their music, I love how fierce and relentless it is and of course that evil, satanic aura around it is also impressive. From start to finish Centurian sounds killer and hardly anything has ever sounded as aggressive and savage as this band.

I may like "Choronzonic Chaos Gods" slightly more, but "Liber Zar Zax" is also incredibly strong and killer album. The songwriting is very much on the same quality and just like on the debut we get a bunch of extreme and utterly powerful, vicious death metal songs that punch you like crazy until you bleed out and die in pain. Stylistically close to such Deicide, Krisiun, Morbid Angel, Angel Corpse or Vital Remains, it is a fuckin death metal feast. Every song sounds like a furious beast, it's truly fast and extremely intense, but without sounding boring or pointless. Centurian does come up with many great riffs, a lot of them are quite memorable, sometimes they can even add a small melodic pattern.... And the arrangements are very good, without repeating the same ideas over and over again. Song structure is actually very simple, because usually every track is based only on three or four patterns, so maybe this is why this album is quite simple to get into and to remember (and all is spiced with many delicious guitar solos). But I prefer it that way, because I don't need to hear ten thousand riffs in every song to like it. More so, there's a good balance between blasting, tight parts and some slower, yet heavy fragments. Songs like "The Reading (Zarzax unto Zax)" and "Heading for Holocaust" and a bunch more are a must for you to hear.

And right in the middle of the album Centurian decided to come up with "Feeding Flesh to the Vortex", which is a fantastic sounding instrumental piece, which gives you a time to gasp for breath, before another dose of carnage begins. I love these slow, sick riffs in it. Fuckin cool stuff. Good album then, not as good as the previous one, but still very damn worthy and recommendable release. Get it, if you love such sick and intense satanic death metal massacre!

Standout tracks: "The Reading (Zarzax unto Zax)", "Heading for Holocaust", "Conjuration for Choronzon"
Final rate: 75/100

One thing that has always bothered me about Centurian is their tendency to write mundane lyrics. It would be one thing if they were incapable of doing better, but this just isn't the case. I was able to forgive the whole "blood/death/Hail Satan" theme that ran through their debut album (1997's "Of Purest Fire"), because Centurian had successfully emulated the old-school death metal vibe without sounding overly derivative. But when 1999's "Choronzonic Chaos Gods" rolled around, my expectations ran a little higher. Given its more ominous title, I was hoping for an album that would see Centurian moving in a more conceptual direction. Unfortunately, my assessment was only half correct. While some of the lyrics were decidedly supernatural (in a Lovecraft-ian sense), others had apparently been left over from the previous album. Musically, "Choronzonic Chaos Gods" showed that Centurian had become a tighter and more cohesive unit. In fact, some tracks are still among their fastest to date. Nonetheless, these very same songs were (for the most part) undistinguished and therefore unmemorable.

With "Liber Zar Zax", it seemed that Centurian was making considerable progress. However, this was true only in a musical sense. The lyrics were still sort of....uh, well....just look at the song titles! In all fairness, a couple of tracks ("Dead Black Nucleus" and the title track) show the beginnings of a profound nihilistic slant. Whether or not the band actually realizes this might be a different story, however. Nonetheless, I can appreciate the slight (albeit brief) departure from their previous lyrical exploits.

Moving on to the finer points of this release, I would definitely give an affirmative "hail" to Centurian for cranking out some excellent death metal this time around. Most of the songs on "Liber Zar Zax" should have placed them among such technically-adept acts as Krisiun and Angel Corpse. However, there were plenty of instances where Centurian sets a standard that puts them beyond such categorization. Speed is still a huge factor here, but it is well-tempered with intelligence, melody, and chaos.

The disc kicks off with a speedy ode to the Necronomicon entitled "The Reading (Zarzax Unto Zax)", which serves as a good introduction to the sonic mayhem that awaits. Granted, much of "The Reading..." is played with the same speed and aggression that hundreds of other bands are known for. But when guitarists Rob Oorthuis and Oskar Van Paradijs start trading off their fiendishly demented licks and warped chromatic-scale runs, you begin to realize that Centurian is offering much more than a standard trip through heavily-traveled waters. Another interesting device in the duo's arsenal is their penchant for overlapping solos ("Hell At Last"), which gradually build into a raging sphere of cacophony. As this volatile mixture heats up, the dual vibrato dives and perverse string-play teeter gradually toward that crucial line which separates order and total anarchy. Interestingly, the guitarists usually choose not to cross the threshold, and simply allow their songs to end in a simmering pot of molten chaos.

Of course, soloing rarely accounts for more than 1/4 of a guitarist's output for any given song. What's left are the riffs, which have to be mercilessly heavy in the absence of originality or innovation. The riffs on this album aren't exactly unique, but they are played with enough fervor to satiate the discerning ear. "Colosseum of Blood" and "Speech Of The Serpent" are two characteristic examples, as both display a sound that could easily have come off the fretboard of Trey Azagthoth. However, it took me almost three listens to make the connection. It always seemed that Centurian was striving to distinguish themselves, despite inhabiting a scene that could be a bit thankless at times.

Incredible that this death metal classic doesn’t have a review yet. The demise of Centurian is a tragic loss…

The two main men and driving force behind this band were guitarist Rob Oorthuis and drummer Wim van der Valk. Van der Valk’s previous band Inquisitor released two very strong demos and then a speed-thrash-death demon of a full-length: “Walpurgis – Sabbath of lust” (read the reviews on the archives!). Centurian kind of arose from the ashes of Inquisitor.
In my opinion this album, Centurian’s final masterpiece “Liber ZarZax”, exceeds both the Inquisitor album and the two first releases by Centurian. Indeed Centurian may not be lifting fast death metal to new levels, but their execution of pure blasting death metal fire is excellent! Centurian plays in a style somewhere between Altars of madness-era Morbid Angel and Krisiun. The band is not ashamed of this: on their demo “Of purest fire” (later released as a mcd by Full Moon Productions) they do a well performed version of “Blasphemy”, quite a bit faster actually than the masters themselves! Technically Morbid Angel may be just one notch up ahead, but this album makes up with its ferocious speed and rhythm of the songs. It’s a head banging beast of rage.

The drumming is fantastic: different blast beats alternate and over this organic layer Van der Valk beats his drum kit to shit! The patterns change very quickly but evolve naturally. With his punishing strokes and controlled, yet inextricable chaos he incinerates demons and devils and evokes new ones all the same!
Guitars are not as up front and solos not as abundant as Krisiun, but the total sound of Centurian is – as a result – maybe even more coherent. Very adequate riffing and hacking by Oorthuis/Van Paradijs enhance the force of evil unleashed by Van der Valk.
Since their previous album “Choronzonic chaos gods” bass player Patrick Boleij and Seth van der Loo devote all their time to Severe Torture. Seth is a drummer but delivered the vocals for Centurian (very well!) on the demo and the debut. Jerry Brouwer does vocals and bass on Liber ZarZax: his death grunt is very powerful and sometimes even understandable without the lyric sheet.

The album itself is in total symmetry: it starts off with the extremely brutal and enchanting track “The reading (ZarZax unto Zax)” after which four more speed demons attack you. The centerpiece “Feeding flesh to the vortex” is a slower, pounding instrumental work of carnage. I do not totally adore it, but one must admit that it’s a kind of welcome moment of thought and reverberation… but then it drags you mercilessly into the other half of the album: five more dead black nuclei which beat you to DEAD relentlessly!

The cover follows the concept of the initial “Of purest fire” demon/pentagram again, but this time Oorthuis left the final workout to the famous Jacek Wisniewski. His computer drawing may be very slick and drawing immediate attention, it’s too bad however that the brooding darkness of the Choronzonic cover is absent… well at least no real blood had to flow for this one. But blood will flow when listening to Liber ZarZax! No death metal collection is complete without this outrageous beast of an album.