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Impending Doom > Apocalypse III - The Manifested Purgatorium > Reviews
Impending Doom - Apocalypse III - The Manifested Purgatorium

Pinpoint precision - 89%

Felix 1666, July 20th, 2014
Written based on this version: 2001, CD, Cudgel

The careers of some promising bands end just too early. Impending Doom have to be mentioned in this context. Their third full-length seemed predestined to catapult them at the top of the underground metal scene, but it turned out quite differently. The album was not rewarded by success. The response was rather subdued, even in their homeland, Germany. As a consequence, they split up. I am therefore writing this review with mixed feelings.

From the beginning of the album, Impending Doom attack without consideration of losses. Their consistent harshness dominates this output from the first second onward. For the sake of creating a bastard of thrash, black and death metal, the band continuously delivers aggressive riffs and accurately played drums. The vocals cover the whole range between death metal grunts, demonic laughter, robotic sprechgesang, hymnal singing and Schmier-like screams with particular emphasis on throaty growls. By contrast, the guitar sound does not have this tendency to death metal. It is not as low-tuned as it usually is on an album of this genre. However, melodic parts are few and far between while the excellent used double bass drumming gives a special spice to the songs. What is more, the multi-faceted work of the drummer leads to a brilliant result. Generally speaking, the production leaves nothing to be desired. Even the bassist is audible!

Impending Doom do not give boredom a chance. Exciting high speed parts often appear, but the frequent tempo changes are also well thought through. The diversified songwriting does not follow only one approach. The overwhelming heaviness is not achieved by an indefinable wall of noise. The band creates the album´s aura by a very precise and purposeful procedure, probably thanks to the outstanding technical skills of the musicians. Although the third song is called "Chaos God", you will not identify a chaotic approach. Just listen to the razor-sharp riffs and the blastbeat-like drumming at the beginning of this piece to understand what I mean. The following "Obscure Funeral" begins with church bells and wind noise, a rare atmospheric moment, but a fascinating riff and the almost inhuman voice disturb this scenario and the song turns into an ultra-heavy killer track. However, it has to be said that each and every piece of this full-length more or less meets the highest demands. Finally, the unbridled guitar work knows how to please during the entire album.

So why did Impending Doom fail to take the next step? I don´t believe that a lack of enthusiasm or something like that was the reason. Maybe their style of metal did not fit the mold of what was popular at the time. Anyway, "Apocalypse III" lives up to its name while taking you on an extreme metal trip. If you would like to know where it ends, you only need to look at the dismal cover. We can therefore only regret that the band never recorded a successor. Maybe they decided to split up because they knew that they would not be able to surpass this output.