Destructo Evangelia

Ok, not really. The Bathory influences are proeminent, and obvious, but Damnation is not exactly a rip-off, since they have some originality in their music (not that there is anything wrong with being a Bathory rip-off). There are 5 songs here, plus an intro and two covers, one of Vulcano and other of Bathory. With the exception of "Insulter Of Jesus Christ!", all the proper songs are above five minutes in length. Probably the best bands to compare Damnation are -guess who?- Bathory and Vulcano. They have the evilness of the previous with the aggression of the later. If you take "The Return", add "Bloody Vengeance" and a hint of originality, you basically have this album. The riffs here are many and, for the most part, crushing and awesome. The production gives the album this awesome raw feel, yet still allows you to listen the music without missing anything. You can hear everything, and with some effort, the bass too.

The music itself is, as I said before, raw, aggressive and evil. The vocals are very raspy and brutal, and somewhat low-pitched. They complement the evilness of the music very well. The drumming is nothing special, but it serves the music well. Some bashing here, some bashing there, not outstanding but good. The guitars are crunchy and the riffs, lethal. Perhaps that is one of the main faults here. Too many riffs. On the longer songs, they have like, 5 awesome riffs, 5 good riffs, and they are all repeteaded too many times. It's like the band knew they had great riffs, so they decided to play them over and over and over. As a result, some of the riffs lose their strength and become somewhat boring. That's not to say that every riff becomes boring. No. On the title track, there is a section around the 4 minutes mark where the song becomes slower and more crushing, more menacing, more [i]evil[/i]. There is just no way that riff can be considered boring. Anyway...

The solos here are sparse and, although good, not the focus of the music - except for the great solo on "Insulter Of Jesus Christ!", which is probably the best song on the album. As I said before, the bass can be heard with some effort, and if you do hear the bass, you'll find that he is doing, well, bass stuff. Basically following the guitar, giving more rhythm to the songs. Just like the drums. As for the covers: "Bloody Vengeance" is an awesome song, and a brazilian black/thrash classic. Here the production makes it more evil sounding, heavier and still as aggressive as it was. I'd say this cover is on the same level of the original song. As for "Armageddon", things aren't so nice. The production on this particular track sucks, for some unknown reason, and the cover itself is mediocre. Surprisingly the weakest song on the album.

Overall, this is a very good album that suffers from some unfortunate flaws. If only the band focused on making shorter song, it would be much better. Still, very entertaining. Highly recommended for fans of the Bathory style of black metal.

A good friend of mine recommended me this band a little while ago, mentioning that it was old-school Bathory worship done right. Being the average black metal fan that I am, my interest was instantly piqued and decided to check it out on the spot. Upon the end of the final track (a blazing cover of Bathory's Armageddon), I found that Damnation was more than simple Bathory worship, but had its own distinct, evil sound.

This is Damnation's first full-length to date, consisting of eight tracks including an intro and a pair of covers (Bathory and Vulcano), clocking in at roughly 40 minutes. The intro starts off with a sound clip of a thunderstorm, with guitar and drums fading in after about 30 seconds. The repetitive riff sets the mood for the following song, a savage black thrash assault known as Insulters of Jesus Christ! (note the exclamation mark; it's part of the song title, not me being excited) . This is very similar to old-school Bathory, only with better musicians (sorry Quorthon, but even you'd admit you weren't great if you weren't sipping absinthe with Lucifer in Hell) and with FAR better vocals; there are very few black metal vocallists who sound as furious behind the mic as Richard Cabeza, and the fact that his vocals are more reverbed than usual amplifies the feeling of hate. The following tracks are less thrashy (except of course, for the Bathory cover at the end of the album) and sound surprisingly like a more refined version of Ofermod, at least to my ears. One outstanding track from the album was "When Creation Dies", for the sole reason that it evokes the most evil atmosphere out of all the tracks, and it has almost Somberlain-era Dissection solos. My only gripe with this album is the lack of new material, minus the aforementioned track and the title track itself. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but in this case, the whole thing doesn't really flow as well as an album should.

This album was only recently acknowledged by the underground, and the vinyl version especially has enjoyed distribution through a variety of mailorders. I highly suggest this for any fan of the old school, but also to the people who are more fond of the newer generation. Recommended, buy now or forever remain a procrastinating degenerate.

The first thing that I noticed was the text of the name was very Bathoryesque. The second thing I saw was the very Pagan illustrated cover. So I instantly, flipped the case over and saw that they divided the album into two “sides” side darkness and side evil. As any Bathory fan would know, Damnation is obviously heavily inspired by them. And what better time to release a Bathory inspired album than in the same year as the death of the great Quorthon, the innovator of Black Metal! In short, I liked the album before I heard a single song.

With such high expectations for an album already, it would have been hard for any band to live up to. This band, however, not only lived up to the hype that I myself created, but raised the bar even higher. I was instantly drawn by the intro. Something about thunderstorms always intrigued me so naturally an album that opens with “Invocation of the Storms” and uses very realistic sounding effects of rain falling and thunder rolling would set a nice stage for any listener.

The rest of the album is quite melodic. It combines all of the best qualities of The One True Mayhem, Darkthrone, and of course Bathory. The riffing seems to come quite naturally. Solos aren’t particularly important in Black Metal but the band manages to pull off a few face melters, the best being in “Insulter of Jesus Christ.” The drums are also very effective especially on “Invocation of the Storms” as the sound of thunder. The vocals are actually pretty clear for black metal. The listener can actually hear what is being sung and more importantly, understand it.

The overall sound is typical of old school black metal. It actually sounds as though it could have been released in 1989 instead of 2004. With two classic black metal covers, “Eternal Black” by Vulcano and “Armageddon” by Bathory, they reproduce the old school sound even more effectively. They made both covers their own while, at the same time, staying true to the originals.

The lyrics are well written and perfect for any black metalist. My favorite tracks include: “Insulter of Jesus Christ,” “Night Eternal,” “Destructo Evangelia,” “Eternal Black,” and “Armageddon,” I actually could have listed the entire album but thought against it. The tracks listed for the most part are the highlights but I guess you will just have to make up your own mind won’t you!

Any Black Metal fan will love this album. What a great way to celebrate and honor the life of the great Quorthon (RIP)!