Hour Of Penance "Pageantry For Martyrs"

Tracklist: 01. Towards Our Storm 02. Shreds Of Martyr 03. End Of Relief 04. Celebrating Collective Terror 05. Far Beyond Humiliation 06. Life In A Pain Amplifier 07. Exiled Innocence 08. Naked Knife Absolution 09. Deranged Parasite 10. Egomanisch Release: 2005 Genre: Brutal Death Metal URL: www.hourofpenance.net Label: www.xtreemmusic.com

Attention! It's penance hour now. Sit down and shut your fucking beak. High speed Death Metal from Southern Europe is specifying the direction. I hope that this Italian band is already known to the Death Metal community. At least they made be become a fan through their album "Disturbance". I was accustomed to get only mediocre up to low quality with bands from Italy. Because of that the claims on "Pageantry For Martyrs" have been very high in the apron. Especially the absolutely clear and heavy production done by the band is able to positively attract attention. I only wished that the track "Shreds Of Martyr" would have been used as the opening track because I already enclosed that one into my heart beforehand because it's simply the best song on this CD. But that is not really important in the end and so that one comes as the second one. A big plus of this band is their vehemence and agility they with which they are playing their material. The blast beats are fresh and unspent whereby the ongoing tailings get in perpetuity annoying, but in the end that is a personal taste. Maybe it would have been better to slow down the tempo here and there to insert a little bit of alternation. Even if these boys want to show what they are able to do; after their previous album they don't need to convince me or anyone else anymore. Especially a track like "End Of Relief" is building a good contrast relating to the banging and is showing the musically ability of this band. Another positive point is the very cool guitar sound. On such guitar walls one has no chance especially when they are adorned with some nice economically used solos. "Pageantry For Martyrs" is not really a short album which is in my opinion operating as a disadvantage because in the second half of the album there are not so many good songs as on the beginning. Permanently the nonstop blasting can get a little bit boring. With the big distance between the decent last track and the hidden one (nicely crested with some Kill Bill samples) Hour Of Penance are unnecessary stretching the runtime. Also another point for critic is the vocals. Sure I don't completely dislike what Alex "Necrotorture" is doing but there is some strange effect laying over the voice. Sometimes it is sounding like he is growling through a hand channel or something. The lyrics however are really good and I like them; pretty atmospherically and nicely formulated. On the whole it is really pleasantly that these Italians are following their own line and they are presenting a very good album here to everyone. If one is not familiar with the band already then I would recommend listening to the previous album "Disturbance" first. Anyway I can't wait to see these guys live on stage. In the end there is only the question remaining and that is what the band was trying to aim at with their naked upper body chest hair posing in the booklet. I think that will be their secret for the present.

Ratiung: 82 % | from Grimo | Date: 30.07.08 | Time: 00:35	shut down