Blaspherian «Infernal Warriors of Death» CD

Blaspherian craft old school death metal from well-known elements, but infuse it with a new spirit and give it a unique voice. Although the overall sound of this album fits into the early 1990s death metal scene, its approach is more like the advanced black metal of recent years, slowly building atmosphere through simple riffs twisted into complex song structures.

If you’ve heard Obituary, Incantation, Asphyx, Morpheus Descends or Immolation, you’re familiar with the approach: detuned guitars wrest riffs out of a few chords and quick right-hand technique, alternating between palm muted and tremolo strum to compose with pure texture itself. Like the percussion on the first Incantation album, drumming here varies between mid-paced urgency and a laid-back, doom metal approach that hooks the listener so that vocal cadence can take over a lead role.

This reviewer did not mind the absence of guitar solos and found it refreshing. Having improved in efficiency and organization since their earlier works, Blaspherian make atmospheric metal that is like a descent into cavernous subterranean realms booming with echoing sound. As a result, it not only does not require solos, but benefits from having each instrument take a supporting role. Guitars lead, and the change in riffs defines song structure, but vocals hang in doggedly and always fit tightly into the composition, sounding in cadence and growl a lot like early Immolation.

Much like recent albums from older bands that did not cave in to the urge to «update» their music or the cash cow of re-hashing the past, «Infernal Warriors of Death» is closer to a concept album. Shorter more passionate songs build up to the last two pieces, which use simpler riffs and more reliance on pure blunt rhythm to drag the listener into their occult world, then slacken to a mood of contemplation as the album ends.

While much of the death metal back «in the day» attempted to portray a lawless and chaotic evil, the latest offering from Blaspherian suggests a conniving, controlling and deliberate sinister presence which systematically undermines all that is good. There is menace in this album, and I mean that in the best possible way. Not only is it an update to Blaspherian’s promising but chaotic «Allegiance to the Will of Damnation,» but also it finds a new voice for the old school that transcends nostalgia to give us a 21st century vision of evil and death metal itself.