Paramount Evil

This is a rather angry album; it's not fond of slowing down with an acoustic passage or some clean female vocals and I don't think there are ANY songs at all about respecting the environment! Despite all this, though, it's quite a fun album; Impiety plays an excruciatingly brutal style of black/death metal which never holds any impulse to back down for even a moment. This is the perfect album for those who think that brutality is only stupid when absent; it has no subtlety or complexity to it, but it's very satisfying music.

'Paramount Evil' is dominated by ultra-fast blasting and hellish tremolo riffs, surrounded by a rather Ihsahnesque vocal performance. I detect a little bit of influence from more obscure death/grind artists like Blood and Cianide, but the primary feel of this is based off of modern black and death metal bands. The black metal influence is certainly Norsecore-leaning; Belëf immediately comes to mind, as does Marduk and Dark Funeral, but the death metal isn't quite as easy to pinpoint, reflecting an older style of grinding death metal (perhaps Nembrionic?) which isn't quite as popular anymore.

Impiety's music is rather grinding and static; there's not a great deal of variation in riffing or tempo, but it makes up for these deficiencies in the absolute fury with which everything is played. Beyond that most generic of compliments, however, this has an insidious breed of catchiness about it, particularly in the more imaginative vocal and guitar rhythms on tracks like 'Carbonized' which really stick to your brain. The music never really drags despite the rather lengthy (at times) tracks and overall the album has a good sense of pacing which keeps you interested throughout.

This isn't particularly remarkable, but it's fun music that I enjoy listening to despite its overall lack of creativity. Some of the more unique influences make this a slightly different album to listen to; it sort of sounds like it should have come out in the late '90s, but it has all the technical intensity of production values of something from later years. If you enjoy blasting black/death and aren't a stickler for atmosphere and progression, you might as well try this; maybe 'fun' is the wrong word for music like this, but it's the only one I can think of.

WOAH! This album launched itself right out of the speakers and ripped my damn head off. Actually, it does that every time I listen to it. Impiety’s evolution from a raw black metal buzz into a death metal powerhouse has been somewhat quicker than some bands who’ve taken the same path – in fact, they made the jump with both feet on the previous album, Kaos Kommand 696. However, that album was plagued by an overly chaotic, thick sound which made a lot of the riffing difficult to distinguish. Paramount Evil, on the other hand, has the perfect production for this style: dry, well-separated sheets of guitar and bass overlaying snappy, punchy drums, with no one instrument dominating the mix. Add to this a massive increase in technical proficiency courtesy of the entire old lineup being replaced by the entire Hacavitz crew, and you have an album which simply decimates all in its path.

The first two songs – Sunrise Defloration and Carbonized – both blast along like nuclear warfare, shitloads of tempo changes, lightning-fast blasting and bestial multilayered vocal vomits – while the album’s lyrical content substitutes the usual “rargh warfukkinggoatsodomy” invective with a sick fixation on human cruelty. This is a major improvement, since instead of fantasy visions of right-hand-path devil worship, we get studies of such lovely events and personas as the Nanjing Massacre, World War II, Vlad Tepes and Caligula. There’s also plenty of anti-judaic sentiments to befuddle the politically correct types, particularly in Carbonized – really, no one’s going to mistake lines like “we hail the wanton brutality – anti-jewish supremacy!” as belonging in a sympathetic account of the Holocaust – and Adonai Made Excrement. Add to this the artwork – mostly consisting of ovens, mass graves and the gates of Auschwitz proudly displayed under the CD tray, not to mention a blueprint map of the camp on the back cover – and it becomes fairly obvious Impiety are making no plans to tour Israel any time soon.

Overall, this album is far more likely to appeal to fans of death metal than the black metal that Impiety are known for. Aside from a few high-end tremolo riffs and Shyaithan’s usual midrange rasp – punctuated by occasional deep growls - this is pure precise brutality, a razor-sharp assault on the senses permeated with a nearly epic feel on some songs. Anyone who appreciates their death metal extreme yet melodic and skillfully delivered will have absolutely no trouble trashing their room to the sound of Paramount Evil.



Originally published at http://www.diabolicalconquest.com

With the metric ton of bands out there defining themselves to one category and not going out on there own it’s a breath of toxic decaying air to hear the battle cry’s of the mighty Impiety. In the likes of bands like Destroyer 666 and Bloodstorm, Impiety delivers some aggressive, destructive, and straight forward metal right down your throat. Combining aspects of thrash and death metal they separate themselves away from all the other clone bands performing your run of the mill death metal. Impiety’s newest full length Paramount Evil arrives just in time to impale a rusty bayonet of aggressive hate filled metal right in your heart were you feel it. Paramount Evil will makes its mark on you then leave you wasted.

Paramount Evil has so much going throughout the album. While each song is done in respects to the last, creating a consistent and aggressive feel to the entire album, each song offers up elements of thrash and death metal. The typical Paramount evil song with have your thrash style riffs which are aggressive, brutal, and fast. The Majority of the riffs will be your thrash/death style riffs that are very fast and range from brutal and aggressive to technical. The sheer range of the riffs alone make this album great. Reign The Vulture showcases a great thrash style intro riff that morphs into death/thrash riff by making it lighting fast when the vocals kick in. On Pillars Of Perversion the song slows down to spotlight a technical thrash style riff similar to Sodom’s stuff. Sunrise Declaration starts off with a killer battle style riff that is full of power and aggression, its fits into the song as a precursor for the destruction to come. With Paramount evil more full of aggressive, brutal, and technical riffs than Sodom and Coroner combined its an added bonus that Impiety know how to structure a song to make them sound as destructive and aggressive as possible, but also managing to have all the instruments (vocals included) morph into one solid sound.

What makes Impiety and Paramount Evil great is the bands ability to play so well together and produce a music that sounds unified. The production of the album is top notch making each instrument very distinguishable, but during the segments of each song where Shyaithan delivers fast screaming vocals over grindingly brutal riffs and fast pounding drumming Impiety sounds like one machine delivering the music. The structure and placement of each note is so well orchestrated that it is easy to get lost in the sound of Paramount evil and focus less on each individual instrument. The unified sound is one of aggression and hatred that focuses on being brutal, but finds time to include technical segments. On the song Might Impiety the band switches back and forth from their unified sound to technical riff oriented segments of the song, making it more interesting to listen to. With its unified sound, Paramount Evil is one of the most consistent and straight forward death/thrash metal albums out there.

Paramount Evil has many other great aspects sprinkled throughout the album. From machine gun affects over slow paced guitars to spoken word placed over battle riffs, that album is full of a destructive atmosphere. The vocals are delivered fast and without hesitation in a loud and harsh fashion. Many fast and epic solo’s are found in the middle of songs and also closing certain songs, like Sunrise Declaration. Paramount Evil is the answer for alternatives for bands like Destroyer 666 and the solution for an album that doesn’t follow any rules and isn’t afraid to take no prisoners. If your looking for a destructive, aggressive, fast, and original album then you have found it with Paramount evil. The only downside of the album is that certain parts are much better than others, making some of the album sound like filler. But this isn’t often enough to make Paramount Evil anything less than great.