Conquerors of Armageddon

Without doubt, and after listening to almost all Krisiun albums, "Conquerors of Armageddon" stands as the pinnacle of their career. These brazilian brothers trio released this gem composed of nine songs, each one so brutal yet so well excecuted, incredible fast, pulished technical skills, and a very good lyrical athmosphere that complements the fierness of the whole musical concept.

The production is perfect, every instrument can be heard clearly without any saturation, showing the experience of Erik Rutan as a producer and Andy Classen as the engineer for obtaining a very clean sound and a wonderful balance between sonic aggression and clarity.

Now, about the musicians, Max is an underrated death metal guitar player, and the his capability for creating riffs is so admirable. At simple hearing, one can think all songs have equal guitar structures, however, listening to the album a couple times with attention provides the apreciation of the complexity of the guitar work and the insane skills for compposing a sound voragine that match perfectly in every tempo and rythm change.

Moyses is an inhumane drummer, the way he plays without rest and at a supersonic speed amaze anybody, even the ones who are not used to extreme metal. Every single song has a brutal blast beat from begining to end, only slowing down a little in some rythm changes to return to the sonic speed, while his double bass drumming doesn't rest at all.

Alex takes the bass and vocals duties, and even when his works with the four string instrument is correct, he stands out for his powerfull guturals, a fierce vocalization that remains in some way the Florida death metal singers style.

The lyrics are well written, with a tematic that ranges between demon forces, anti christianity, battles and satanic victory, that can be aplied metaphorically to the every day life struggles.

This trio works perfectly, just like a very powerful engine. All songs are at the same top level, without fillers. If someone wants to give it a try, I recommend "Ravager", "Messiah's Abomination", "Conquerors of Armageddon" and "Soul Devourer". This album follows the path of classic Deicide, Morbid Angel, Vader, etc.

"Conquerors of Armageddon" is a must for every death metal fan, and for sure, one of the extreme metal gems of the new millenium.

My first real experience with this band came at last year's Milwaukee Metalfest. One of the highlights of my torturous trip up north to that glorious assemblage of 20-minute blitzkrieg shows was seeing this Brazilian death squad in action, and later meeting and talking with the vocalist, Alex Camargo. To say that Krisiun put on a great performance has to be one of the most egregious understatements of this magazine's year: they blew my mind. I was treated to the pure essence of savage death metal, in the flesh, witnessing a aural display of violence so insanely precise, commanding, and dominating, that it stunned me, and reminded me (once again) of the amazing power that this music can hold when it is delivered with passion, determination, and an undeniable mastery. I don't remember another time when I have seen a crowd burst into cheers and screams after every single solo - guitarist Moyses Kolesne held the audience in the palm of his hand. For most of their set, however, I was watching his brother Max play the drums, flabbergasted by his skill and the immense speed he attained almost effortlessly - on a kit that wasn't even his. Seeing Krisiun play live is mandatory - they will make believers out of you.

Word of this group first began to trickle in to me about three years ago. At that time Krisiun was still something of an unknown, a cult band, a storm raging on the edge of the world (or on the edge of this country, at least). With a complicated distribution deal through GUN records, out of Germany, their albums were still something of a rarity. For a lot of people, I think, this only made the cult of Krisiun more exciting: you had to work a little in order to hear them. The buzz on this band always mentioned one thing: their incredible speed - they were supposedly faster, really, than any other band. At first I wasn't intrigued by that at all. When someone mentions 'speed' I usually think of Napalm Death and how boring that grindcore formula has become. It took me a while to even bother trying to hear Krisiun. My loss.

In the last few reviews I have done I have been talking about the revival of the 'old' style of death metal - bands influenced mainly by the spirit and melodic vision of groups like Possessed, Slayer, and Morbid Angel. With this album, I think that this small global scene (the bands bringing this style back are from all over the place, really) has come to full fruition. If the last Angelcorpse album didn't firmly nail the coffin lid of overtly technical 'brutal death metal' down forever, then I hope this release will. Concentrating on riffs that are never ostentatiously technical (but which hardly ever become repetitive either), Moyses weaves black spells of swirling distortion with his guitar, freezing you with malevolent fretboard runs and scorching, excoriating rhythms. The drumming is also superb, Max has to be one of the fastest and most unrelenting pounders of the skins out there. His incredible blasts, high velocity double-bass drumming and breakneck fills are awe-inspiring. It is superfluous, really, for me to try to describe the burning ferocity of this music. Krisiun play like they are possessed. You have to hear it to be able to fully realize their power, and in hearing it you will be amazed. It is also difficult to describe the evocative effect of this band - suffice it to say that they are heirs to the type of malefic melodicism that Slayer once spread throughout the world... wickedness lurks deep within their music, staring out boldly at you, and their knowledge of pain, hatred, and anger fills the songs on this album with a truly infernal atmosphere. This isn't the kind of band that pays lip service to 'evil' and then hides behind abstractions or digressions - these guys mean what they say, living, breathing, and bleeding the true metal spirit, and their nefarious intensity is disconcerting, to say the least. It is also very refreshing.

Krisiun are truly original, something that I didn't expect but which I am very pleased by. It is an effect, I think, of the fact that they don't seem to be influenced at all by the bands or music that surrounds them - as if they heard a few essential albums ten years ago - say, Slayer's 'Reign in Blood' and Morbid Angel's 'Altars of Madness' and then never bothered to listen to anything else. Placing themselves in a musical isolation, they concentrated on developing their own pure sound - a potently damaging melodic vision that references earlier bands in an obscure, personal fashion, but which never falls to derivation. I know that it couldn't have happened this way, but that is what they sound like. They have a very idiosyncratic style which just happens to be one of the most powerful and blasphemous sounds on the planet.

I am not going to pick this album apart searching for high points, because the entire record is one long maelstrom of inspiring death metal art. There are metal bands, and then there is Krisiun - they stand alone. This release is, I believe, the first essential album of the new millenium. Buy this, buy 'Black Force Domain', and then buy their others. I can't recommend 'Conquerors of Armageddon' highly enough.

UA

Erebus Magazine
http://erebuszine.blogspot.com

The brutality never ceases here. Blast beating galore with a solid production sound and aura. The guitar riffs are at their best here and the intensity never ceases on this album. It’s fast the whole way through. These Brazilian guys work better as a trio other than a quartet. Amazing talent is exhibited here with every member contributing a great amount of effort.

The solos are blinding fast with arpeggios, sweep picking, tremolo picked rapid fire leads that don’t cease. I love every track on this album and to me it’s their best work that I’ve heard. The riffs are totally original and wicked. There really isn’t much variety here though, no slow guitar really it’s just packed with speed picking and bar chords that are all over the place.

Everything fits here. For a lot of people it’s monotonous and to them it’s like “when is it going to slow down?” But for me I can listen to the album repeatedly and still come up with the same conclusion: death metal at it’s best. The vocals fit the guitar work and drums are feasting fast that definitely fits the guitar totally.

Uncompromising, blasphemous lyrics, amazing leads, precision in guitar work, drums blasting away and bass that fits the main guitar well. The balance is here and mixing quality that fits like no other. These guys are seriously on some speed to put out such amazing songwriting and utmost brutality. The effort never ends and good luck keeping up with these tempos!

If you want some brutal death metal that is one like no other, check out Conquerors of Armageddon. Expect nothing but the best in death metal history. Amazing work and intensity that is like no other. The music is fitting with utmost originality. YouTube the song “Abyssal Gates”. The riffs on that song are to me the best ones on this whole album. Pick up this one and I’m sure you’ll think the same thing that I do: simply brutal and uncompromising.

Halfway through their career, in between from the birth of the band until this review was written anyway, Krisiun came up with Conquerors of Armageddon. Everyone who at least like Krisiun should know this album. It is vital to your Krisiun collection. As for the album itself and what the band were doing here, it is still the same band. Like usual, they released everything they had and fired all guns at hand, showing no mercy. So yeah, it sounds like a typical Krisiun album, and it is. So what makes it so special? The songwriting, how it is all structured and the interplay between the instruments.

The instrumentation in general, is typical. For starters are the guitar, which more than often goes chugging away, but have some more frantic leanings, and occasionally alternate between rhythms and tones quite rapidly without breaking up the sound. It also throws around a couple of mean riffs and leads here and there, which are always welcome. The drumming is as usual very dense and aggressive, there is a lot of force behind them. They mostly, or perhaps entirely, blast away using very simple rhythms, but can get a little complex and more hectic at times, which goes in favor for the band here. The bass guitar can appear to do nothing at first, but it is constantly shredding and can be heard as that low trembling underneath the guitars, amplifying the depth and velocity overall. Finally are the vocals, and to be honest, there is not very much to be said. These go on and on in the same pattern of roaring, as usual. But are at least performed skillfully.

The mixing and production? To keep it short, these both work out in favor of every instrument, and are not too clean or dirty to hinder the raw nature of the music. The real strength of Conquerors of Armageddon is the songwriting among other things. The songs are all structured and set up in a manner so precise, it makes the whole album and each song run like clockwork. The play between instruments and how they each fit into the bigger picture are also very well done. So for the overall feel if the music, it is nothing short than excellent. As for the chemistry between the members and how they supplement each other, it is simply just a good mix of skilled musicians.

The only solid downside must be that Krisiun are repeating themselves here, and while that should not be unexpected, it is still that consistency that damage the the band. But as a single album alone, instead of a piece of a larger body of work, this is more or less one the best Krisiun albums to be found. That, there is no doubt about.

Stand-out tracks: Conquerors of Armageddon, Hatred Inherit, Ravager, Endless Madness Descends.
9/10

Krisiun is now a well-established band in the death metal panorama. Its style is unmistakable and always brutal. Recently, we’ve seen (or better, heard) new influences in the sounds. These influences are somewhat a bit more melodic and good to give time for pauses in each song, while this album Conquerors of Armageddon was very important, once more, for it’s sheer brutality. However, some signs of change were easily recognizable and the production has also changed a bit from the hyper raw one we could find on the first EP or on the debut album. We could already notice it on the previous Apocalyptic Revelations.

“Intro / Ravager” has a lot of dark atmospheres and immediately features the low tuned guitars riffage and the neverending blast beats. The riffage is furious, massive and the drumming is simply relentless, creating a base for the classical growls by Alex. The tremolo pickings are really obscure and the whole atmosphere is truly hellish, morbid and apocalyptic. Some new elements come with the less impulsive solos and for some drums breaks. However, don’t expect too many innovations and everything must remain ferocious. “Abyssal Gates” shows more grooving parts for the always fast riffage, as the drumming is just like a machine gun. The guitars riffs are multiple and in constant change as we settle once again on pure massive violence. We could find a bit less impulsive parts by the end, where everything points on the darker side of this kind of sound.

“Soul Devourer” has lots of riffs on tremolo picking passing through lots of tonalities. The violence is always very high and the vocals continue to spit out hymns to darkness, Satanism and desecration. However, this track seems even better structured and the middle section is a bit calmer, announcing the solo. By the way, these parts are always full of the hyper fast bass drums beats. “Messiah's Abomination” is again like a gun shot on the sternum with impulsive, shredded solos and even faster blast beats. What is really good here is the way this band always accomplishes in creating a truly hellish atmosphere. The guitars are essential for this and they never let me down. The few less impulsive sections are just massive and really heavy, showing also several blends of excellent riffs.

The technical level of this band is always well shown and the precision at the instruments always includes that unmatchable, sheer brutality. The apocalyptic, massive and growing introduction of “Cursed Scrolls” anticipates the long blast beats series and massive brutal death waves. The title track is quite famous on the death metal field and once more the riffs pass easily through fast palm muting parts to give the right rhythm and the more canonical, but important for the atmosphere, tremolo pickings. The progression is just ferocious for all the long length while some parts (especially the refrain) are just very catchy for being brutal death metal oriented and always on sheer speed.

“Hatred Inherit” is again quite catchy on the fast palm muting riffs while the rest is just relentlessly violent, like a tsunami invading an entire city. The brutality flows through my ears and scenarios of pure hell are recreated. The unbelievable feeling of pure power and domination this band always succeeds in creating is somewhat astonishing. The more mid-paced breaks show more differences in riffs and styles. “Iron Stakes” doesn’t change the general idea of “hyper fast devastation” but I don’t find these tracks to be annoying or boring for their in your face style. Somehow the band always manages to create quite entertaining tracks as we end the album with “Endless Madness Descends”. The fast bass drums beats are followed by higher dosages of blast beats while the riffage remains schizophrenic.

All in all, this album is another confirm of the Krisiun’s unmatchable power. A power that, fortunately, still continues nowadays. Brutal death metal fans, get this album without fear and you will enjoy it.

It's a good thing Krisiun is here to keep death metal alive the way it should be.

Here we have Krisiun's label debut on Century Media which is called 'Conquerors Of Armageddon'. This is the first Krisiun record that I have heard and I must say that I was totally impressed. It's such a shame that I only discovered Krisiun recently for long have I been searching for a band that sticks to the old-school death metal formula. Luckily, I made a very satisfying discovery in Krisiun and in this amazing album.

What we have here in this album isn't exactly that much of original material; on this release, Krisiun takes Morbid Angel's style and fuses it with an amalgam of much more relentless blast beats, non-stop double-basswork, more intricate soloing than the average death metal band and all these elements work in tandem to elevate the sonic mayhem to the next level of ferocity, speed, technicality and aggression to create their own brand of death metal. These Brazilians show no signs of applying the breaks either...the album is extremely fast and there are few moments that they would venture into a breakdown and would subsequently dissolve into another evil riff that would be accompanied by Max Kolesne's non-stop drumming.

There's not much variety in the songs as an average listen to the entire disc would make you assume that all the songs sound the same. Even if I got the version with the bonus track, 'Seas Of Slime', the song is almost the same as the others though it's definitely one of the better cuts of the album since it's much more riff oriented than some of the other songs in the album. If you do listen and analyze the whole disc, however, you'd notice that there is some technical songwriting here. These guys have done something that their fellow Brazilians, Sepultura, have done in their first 4 albums which is keeping the speed while managing to incorporate several riff transitions and still managing to come out as heavy as fuck. In songs like 'Messiah's Abomination' and 'Hatred Inherit', Krisiun manages to squeeze in some great breakdowns of a little groove that would still keep the speed in the atmosphere before breaking into another plethora of brutal death metal.

Moyses Kolesne definitely did an above-average job for a death metal guitarist here...he's up there in my book alongside Trey Azagthoth and Chuck Shuldiner. His riffing matches the intensity of his brother's pounding drumming and his solos are very well executed and actually do try to follow each song's mood (his soloing actually reminds of that of Hammett's in Metallica's And Justice For All album.). Nothing much to say about Alex's bass though...it's barely audible and is very much overshadowed by the double-bass (as with all fast death metal albums). but his growling is good...nice fit for this kind of death metal and his voice sounds like a mix of Glen Benton's low pitched growl and Chris Barnes' guttural growls. Nevertheless, Erik Rutan has done a fantastic job in producing this album. He manages to make the album as heavy as fuck and still you can notice the relentless speed these guys are going at throughout the entire disc. Add to that the evil atmosphere that covers the entire disc like a cloud...there's that evil atmosphere here that you would find in Sepultura's Morbid Visions/Bestial Devastation release.

This album certainly has its moments and is most definitely heavy as all hell--in fact, a song or two off this CD in the morning on the old headphones will get your heart pounding just as effectively as coffee can. And Erik Rutan's production is excellent as per usual, no complaints there. No bass and the usual annoying triggered drum sound, but what else is new?

This, however, is a transitional release for these Brasilian madmen, transitional in that they were heading towards a more technically proficient direction and getting their act together as a band in that they were getting tighter and more together, more professional sounding than their earliest material. Max' drumming, while furiously fast and energetic, still comes unglued in spots (especially his fills, which are not timed as well as they could be), and Moyses' guitar work is more random and not as coherent as their following albums showed. He tends to flail wildly all over the fretboard on his solos on this album and it's not as effective or efficient. And the lyrics have a strange, free-associated feel to them, as they don't seem to make much sense. Keep in mind, of course, that English is not their first language, so I cut them a little slack for that.

Alex' vocals are excellent, though, and there are some outstanding riffs on this CD, most notably the intro riff of the title track--I got images of Genghis Khan's Mongol Horde sweeping across the steppes of Russia to mow down any and all sorry excuses for enemies in their path! Alex has more character by far than the typical Cookie Monster grunter/growler in the vocal department, though.

The opening track, "Ravager", "Soul Devourer", and the title track are the better tracks on here. Most everything else is, well, interchangeable. And that's a pity. because Krisiun were really starting to get somewhere on this album. Take this as it is, which is a document of where they were at this time and a launching point for them becoming a far better band than they'd been before. Take it as that and you may well enjoy it better than you might otherwise.

Coming from Brazil, Krisiun sure have what it takes to take on most established death metal bands the world over. These guys are mind blowing when it comes to playing their instruments.

Very dark and apocalyptic in content and feel, "Conquerors of armageddon" is a solid display of speed and heaviness. Each song on this album are composed of technical and complex and are played at high speed.
And *ahem* they rule this genre without even singing about chopped up bodies and rotting zombies like most "brutal death" bands do.
These guys prove that brutality is not just about playing loud noisy riffs and singing about chopped up corpses or cannibals soaked in blood. ;)

This goes without saying, the blast beats are fucking ferociously energetic.
The guitar sounds good, a lot like what you might hear on "bestial devastation", only more crisper and heavier.The blast beats just keep coming on this album. The heavy sounding drums kick in as soon as each song starts.No doubt that their drummer is very talented.
This is so fast, Id call Krisiun more of a blackened death metal band.
The solos are good too, and played in sync with the song. The vocals are excellent, sounding just right ,neither too growly nor too high pitched. This gives the perfect voice to Krisiuns heavy and fast style.

Some of the best songs on the album are "Ravager" starts of with a cool intro of winds and explodes into feriocious riffs and just plain bad ass blast beats. Cool vocal patterns too. Watch out a great solo in this song.
Another song youll have to check out is the blistering "Abyssal Gates". This is the heaviest on the album. Just brace yourself for the most brutal riffs youll hear.Guarenteed to have you haeadbanging.

On the downside of the album, save for a few good songs like the ones mentioned most of the tracks sound generic, i.e Most of the numbers sound alike, but hey as long as its something heavy to bang your head to, whos complaining?

This ones a must have for brutal death fans keeping in mind the sheer technical intensity and the heaviness of the songs.

The Brazilian death metal scene is one of the most hate-filled, fast, blasphemous and all around fucking BRUTAL metal scenes in the world. If you're fimiliar with bands like Rebaelliun, Nephasth, Abhorrence etc you know what Brazilian death is all about: blast beats up your fucking ass, insanely fast riffs, god-crushing lyrics and vocals, and some of the fastest solos to ever grace the metal world. And if you know Brazilian death, you know Krisiun. These self taught musicians started out playing on cheap instruments and brought themselves up to the level of Metal Gods.

This album is everything an extreme music fan could ask for. The brothers Moyses and Max Kolosgne, taking their musical influence from Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness and Slayer - Show No Mercy, have done just that and added their own touch to it.
Moyses does take influence from those bands, but this isn't just Azagthoth and Hanneman worship here. This is his own style of death metal, played at 10000 miles per hour. I've heard Krisiun being called "the fastest death metal band". I wouldn't call them that, but they certainly are, FUCKING FAST!!
Max beats his drums to fucking hell, doing some of the fastest blasts and fills you will ever hear. He beats his bass pedals like no tommorow while crushing on his snare like a warhammer.
Alex does a nice job keeping up with Moyses, nothing special in the bass but it's definately talented. Krisiun are really big on vocals, and hate when bands drown out vocals and the lyrics are not understandable. The vocals can be heard perfectly and are composed of harsh highs are brutal mediums.

My favorite tracks are Ravager and Conquerors of Armageddon (watching Moyses do the solo on this song live was one of the best experiences of my life), but all these songs crush.

If you like fast-as-fuck technical metal, filled with tons of blasts and insane solos, BUY THIS ALBUM!