De Natura Daemonum

I've already reviewed an album by this band, but they are just so good I must review more. ''De Natura Daemonum" is a superb death metal release. It has everything, the creativity, the musicianship and instrumentation. the atmosphere, (something that a lot of new OSDM bands are seeming to forget about), etc. Now, I will try and go over some of these aspects of the album.

First off, the creativity. This album has a ton of it. It starts of with a nice and short intro track, titled ''Into The Nethermost''. An epic guitar riff over synths and satanic chanting, is the way this album starts off. The track later continues with more ritualistic riffage and then we get into the title track. In the middle of ''Black Demons'', a creepy acoustic guitar track starts playing over a demonic spoken voice, which seems to tell a tale of demons ravaging the land. There are two short interludes on this album, titled ''Qarqacha, Demon of Incest'' and ''The Witch''. The former is perfect. Layers of woodwinds and strings come together, forming a very suspenseful and eerie sound, while again, a spoken voice speaks of a Andean legend, a theme that Mortem has put into their lyrics numerous time. Then at the end, ''They call me Qarqacha, THE DEMON OF INCEST!''. This demon starts laughing, while an intense orchestra track plays. Awesome, and frankly, this interlude sounds like it could fit a horror movie. ''The Witch'' is not as epic, but still interesting. It seems to take place during the Salem witch trials period of American history, and it is a dialogue between a witch and her persecutor. She is sentenced to death by drowning, and then screams evilly, ''I AM IN THE HANDS OF SATAN''and starts laughing maniacally. Also sounds like it could be part of a horror movie. The actual instrumentation of the album demonstrates this creativity too. There's a ton of variety, with fast tempos, mid tempos, and slow tempos plaguing the album, and a cool part is the solos, many of them feature these evil and awesome sounding dual harmonies. Heck,there's even some sweep picking! Almost all the tracks possess tempo changes. That, combined with the interludes and non-death metal parts of some songs, make it so the listener is never bored. The lyrics on this album vary as well, but they all have to do with supernatural death and evil in some way. In my opinion, they are generally very well written and entertaining. For example, the song ''Shadows That Pray To Asurah,'' talks about Hindu mythology, (you don't see that very often in death metal lyrics do you) but the lyrics are told in a really cool way, that will have you screaming along with them at some parts. One thing I forgot to mention is the riffs are evil, and yeah, you need that in death metal, and especially in this album.

But you know what all these parts of the album add up to the. The atmosphere. It just is a very creepy, spooky death metal album, and it's perfect to listen to at night. Whenever I listen to this album, which I do a lot, (it never gets old!) I just want to go watch some horror movie, and the production accentuates the demonic qualities of this album, which is a plus.

If you like any of the qualities I listed in this review, then listen to this album, and the rest of Mortem's discography, which is also killer. It amazes me how underrated this band is.

I have been following Mortem for quite some time now, and one thing that hits me about this band is that they'r just getting better and better with each release. Nothing prepared me for this, which is definately my best purchase I have made so far this year, it just reeks of perfection. It's a crime that this band has been kicking ass since 1986 and didn't get the recognition they deserved, while fake "death metal" bands such as Job for a Cowboy have been playing shit bland passionless "death metal" since 2002 and the whole world adores them, death metal is complicated.

The guitar work over here is godly, both the guitars work together to create a dirty, vile and memorable rhythm sound that'll tear your soul apart, aswell as creating dark melodic passages that'll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand. The solos here are amazing, they just ooze of death, and all of them are plagued with evil melodies. Alot of the guitar work is done at light speed, aswell as enough midpace sections to create variety and avoid from being repetitive. There are also a few moments of greatness on this album where guitar work is done so well that I got shivers running down my spine the first time I spun this cd (this has only happened several times in history, and this is the first time it happened more than once on the same cd).

The vocals sound horrifyingly evil and aggressive, the vocalist screams into the mic with enthusiasm and passion, which is how death metal vocals should be done. It is amazing to see a vocalist maintain such passion for over twenty two years. Fernan Nebiros must be the most underrated vocalist of all time. He sounds like a demon throughout this album, and there is also alot of variety here with regards to the vocals, you get everything from low growls to high pitched screaming, done tastefully, and while the instruments are all going off full tilt, Fernan spits his words out in a vicious thrashy style, and in the slower sections, his vocals have got a doomy edge to them. I'd even go as far as to say that Fernan is the Peru counterpart of Swedish death metal legend, Matti Karki (both are unrivaled within their own country, even in their continent).

The drumming here is done very well, none of that overrated blastbeat wankery, this has proper old school death metal drumming that actually gives the other instruments breathing space so you can hear what they'r doing, while still sounding brutal. The drumming also keeps to the pace of the music and stands out as it's own instrument.

The whole cd is great, each song stands out in it's own way and has it's own strong points, and it is evident that this band puts more emphasise on sounding evil (the old school way) than in trying to be BROOTAL (the trendy way). I can't really single out songs because it won't do the cd justice, from beginning to end the songs destroy! From the more straight foward songs like Black Demons, to the epic Superstition, to the crushing De Natura Daemonum, this cd is a solid masterpiece.

Why this album hasn't got a review yet is beyond me, as it is a gem masterpiece! If your into pure evil death metal undefiled by lame trends, then do yourself a favour and buy this, and buy any other Mortem cd you see lying around, I got 3 of their cds and they'r all great!