Purulence / Amaymon

There are still many recordings from the past, which aren’t so well known and are waiting to be discovered. For me this split between Purulence and Amaymon was one of such releases, which I wasn’t familiar with until recently. I got interested in it, when I started to listen to Purulence’s “Atrocious Execration” demo and thought it is one of the greatest demos ever, really! Soon I started to look for some information about the Canadian band and started to listen to also their other recordings, what leads us to this split CD. Well, even though it was released by Adipocere Records, which was quite respected label and which released some really great stuff, I don’t think this split CD is so well known, unfortunately. Nowadays it does appear on the internet auctions once in a while, but the prices are usually quite high, so at the moment I’m just listening to it from a cassette, when I have it recorded. I do hope though to get the original CD one day.

As I said, Purulence was the main reason for me to listen to this split. They were amazing band and after killer demo and really solid EP I just really wanted to listen to this material also. Those Canadians have putted here four songs and I must admit that they sound totally fuckin amazing! Style wise the band has evolved quite a lot since the “Atrocious Execration” demo, but definitely this split material is a rightful continuation of the “Inverted Decay” EP. And that means Purulence plays brutal, fast, technical death metal, a lot inspired by Baphomet / Banished, Suffocation, Monstrosity and Cannibal Corpse, to name just few bands. At the same time this material still has a hint of the Swedish death metal influence, which was so important on the demo. When I listen to the opening theme for “Devoted to Lunacy” I can really find a lot in common between it and bands such as Seance and Hypocrisy for instance, which is great. I’m truly amazed by all songs, which Purulence has included here. They’re all just killer pieces, which are crushing with total death metal riffing, with many fast, relentless parts, but which also will massacre you with great Baphomet like slow beats, like the one from “Inhaling the Souls”. And “Sinking into Transparency” will even surprise you will more melodic part here and there, along with incredible guitar leads. I love this song, the way it is structured (especially the opening fragment), how the band builds the tension in it. Absolutely wonderful piece of death metal! But the whole material has great riffs, amazing guitar leads, a lot of energy and deep, guttural vocals… and really good production – there are only positive things, which I can say about Purulence. What’s amazing is that even nowadays this material sounds incredibly fresh and vital, and even though one could say that it is old school death metal, then it has a slight modern touch, what makes it not archaic sounding even nowadays. I am sure than if a band recorded it last year, then everyone would say that it is a killer piece of technical, modern death metal. I can say that this material didn’t get old at all… and it is just a fuckin’ big mistake that Purulence never went anywhere further with such an excellent material and that they haven’t released anything else after that! What a fuckin’ shame! Instead Steeve Hurdle joined Gorguts to record “Obscura” with them and Purulence split up.

As for the second band from this split, they’re called Amaymon and it was a French band, which also never went anywhere further than the appearance on this split CD. It actually includes their only demo recording and I guess the only reason why they’ve ended up on this CD together with Purulence was that Christian Bivel, Amaymon’s guitarist, was Adipocere Records’ owner. Musically this band also played death metal, but quality wise their material is just poorer that the one of Purulence and to be honest, it was just very mediocre. Not that it’s a pile of crap, it wasn’t that bad, but when compared to the excellent Purulence it seems to be quite mediocre. The production difference between both bands is very noticeable, Amaymon sounded much rawer and not even half as brutal and powerful as the Canadians and style wise their death metal was also not so extreme. It was more European influenced, with quite a lot of thrash metal riffing here and there and I can say that their music reminds me the likes of Protector and Massacra. There are some cool fragments, like in “Shemhamphorash”, which may be my favourite song from their part of the split. “Evil Prevails, The Rapture” is also a cool song, it even includes some keyboard background to one of the riffs, what surely underlined the darkened atmosphere of it. Yeah, in the end Amaymon was just average death / thrash metal band. They were fine, but I can find many better bands than them. Anyway, they’ve marked their existence in the history of death metal with participation on this split CD with Purulence, so I’ll remember their name now.
Best song: “Sinking into Transparency”, “Inhaling the Souls” and rest of Purulence’s material!!!!!!!

Imagine driving down a rain soaked road, your vision impaired by huge drops of precipitation falling from the sky. You crane your neck forward, trying desperately to see the road ahead of you. Suddenly, without warning, you slam into the side of an oil tanker truck at 80 miles per hour. As you feel the flesh singe from your bones due to the wall of flame around you, you come to a complete stop. You lay writhing in pain, praying for a chance to make it through this alive. As your eyes flutter open slowly, you see the huge cab of the truck descending upon you, headed straight for your head. A final tear streams down your cheek, as the cab crushes your skull. If you can imagine this, then you can imagine what the Amaymon / Purulence split sounds like. This is some heavy, crushing, brain smashing Death Metal. The 9 tracks on this album are so horrifyingly brutal, you'll feel as though someone is repeatedly kicking your head in with each riff. If you crave extremely scary, heavy Death Metal, then this one is for you.

I believe Adipocere is still offering this one in their catalog, so check their site for more info.