01. Intro
02. Spawn of Satan's Curse
03. Impious Genocide
04. Malevolent Effacement
05. Chanting of Ghouls
06. Salvation by Extermination
07. Of Evil Blood
08. Grotesque Visions
09. Rapt in Malignity
10. Verminous Fluids
11. Charred Remains (Autopsy cover)
12. Spawn of Satan's Curse (live)
13. Salvation by Extermination (live)
Comment:
1st album by this awesome swedish band that plays an infernal, aggressive and intense old school swedish Death in the vein of GROTESQUE and also similar to SADISTIC INTENT & KAAMOS, but way faster and more aggressive!!
You may like it or not, but the exhumation of the old school death metal corpse – all its sounds: Swedish, US, Dutch, etc - is a fact and that current trend in the metal underground is, in my honest opinion also one of the best movements I’ve witnessed in many years. But you must realize that this rise of the dead has started not two or three years ago, but way earlier, as its first necromantic rituals were practiced when Hammerheart Records has released Repugnant's "Hecatomb" MLP in 2000. Then few years later another bands (mostly from Sweden) have debuted like Necrovation, with their excellent demo tape "Ovations to Putrefaction", mighty Kaamos with "Curse of the Aeons" demo and Delve with cool "The Dead Amongst" MCD (and from the other countries there were the likes such as Dead Congregation for instance). Delve has soon changed the moniker for Verminous and released two absolutely killer materials: an EP titled "Smell the Birth of Death" and an album titled "Impious Sacrilege", both from 2003. I was already running my fanzine at that time and I remember I got the "Impious Sacrilege" promo CD from Xtreem Music when it was release and man, I was just fuckin' blown away by that death metal massacre! It truly was one of my favourite albums of that time and I remember I was full of enthusiasm for it. OK, the band never answered my interview, but I liked them a lot anyway! So yeah, I think this new wave of rotten death metal has started way earlier than with the release of Daniel Ekeroth's book. But who cares, you would say? Well, I just wanted to remind you here the fact that Verminous was one of the first bands that have started to play this old school death metal again in the 00's, also because they seem to be criminally forgotten nowadays.
And now let's write something about the "Impious Sacrilege". First of all, just look at this amazing and blasphemous front artwork. Man, this one would look just killer on a t-shirt, I would love to wear it in this catholand called Poland! Deformed, rotten, mutilated zombie of unholy whore and her son, the beast... Fuckin cool! And it all fits perfectly to the blasphemous, sort of satanic lyrics the band has, such as “Kill the father of lies, drink the blood of Christ. See him slowly turn into an empty shell, join the legions of unholy war. Find the answers that you’re looking for, nothing will remain...” (“Of Evil Blood”) or “Desecrate - the denomination of god. Eviscerate - the one upon the cross. We descent ourselves in blasphemy, we'll raise in shape of pain…” (“Impious Genocide”). Fuckin’ cool, don’t you think? These are simple, but straight forward, insulting lyrics, the way I like and which fit this kind of music totally. Of course many of you may say they’re too primitive or whatever, but this style of music doesn’t need pretentious philosophies and ambitions. Keep it simple, old school, aggressive and blasphemous and the hell awaits for you.
For the musical aspects of “Impious Sacrilege” I would need to call forth one band mainly – and it is Repugnant. I don’t want to say that Verminous has been copying their nauseating friends, but surely both bands have been mainly taking their inspirations from the good old death metal scene and the likes of Treblinka, Nihilist, Possessed or Merciless (this one mainly for the quite clear raw thrash metal influence that is present in both bands), and so what we’ve got in the end was something truly characteristic and what both Repugnant and Verminous did in pretty similar way. Both bands were great anyway and as such “Impious Sacrilege” was filling up the empty space left by Repugnant in excellently. The album is just killer. The riffs are fuckin’ razor sharp, mutilating in very fast and extreme way, the whole is like a violent force, pure mayhem and devastation. The band never really compromises and thus the whole music is based on raw, pure old school death / thrash metal. Surprisingly, with all that chaos and brutality, the songs also have quite few hooks, like the one from "Spawn of Satan`s Curse" or “Of Evil Blood” for instance. But these mainly focus on a memorable chorus part, which let you memorize the songs more, as most of the music was played in slightly chaotic, relentless way. Apart from that, there are many excellent (not necessarily Swedish sounding) riffs, properly raw and dirty production and brilliant, vomiting furious vocal lines from Pelle Piss. Hell, I cannot wish for anything more, everything that “Impious Sacrilege” is comprised of is as it should be and so I believe this album is almost perfect. What’s more, the LP version is finished with Autopsy’s “Charred Remains” cover, what suits the whole great and I could only pick up what has remained of myself and play the album all over again to start the massacre once more. Great album, really.
Standout tracks: "Spawn of Satan`s Curse", “Of Evil Blood”, “Salvation by Extermination”
The release begins with a short intro. It isn't overly long, and contrasts well with the first song - a simple hokum horror style piano tune meandering a little (and for once actually sounding like a piano) with a little light synth ambience. Then the death/thrash onslaught begins. The style cannot really be compared to another band; it has the same death/thrash mix as Necrovation, but is taken to far more chaotic levels. The playing sounds at once out of control but also extremely tight during key moments, giving the impression of the band playing deliberately loosely. The vocals are strong rasping growls, sounding great when spitting out fast passages or in the occasional longer scream or grunt. The range isn't particularly large, but they're solid and fit perfectly. The drumming is strong, with some interesting fills and the bass adds to a great weight of sound, but without being too audible by itself.
The first song Spawn of Satan's Curse is outrageously good: it grabs you by the face and does not let go. Beginning with an obliterating blast, swiftly overlaid by a squealing guitar lead before a pummelling mid-tempo section (setting the seed for a riff which will be developed later) then speeds into the first vocal passage. This all happens in under the first 20 seconds of track. By the time the chorus has arrived, this album cannot be ignored. The relentless nature of the music, coupled by the high degree of structural interest and melodic appeal makes the band unusually compelling. A superb slower riff in the second half and an expertly placed blink-and-you-miss-it breakdown all confirm that this band has no interest in milking ideas, in fact many of the best ones come and go within seconds. Seemingly contrary to the instrumental diversity, the chorus of the song repeats quite a lot, but this only adds to the relentlessly unhinged nature of this out of control beast, each time it repeats, it crushes yet more.
That song is an ideal representation of the band's highly fucked and chaotic style. It is quite far from brutal death metal, as it contains not only a lot of melody, but also many changes in dynamics. The production is also absolutely filthy and perfectly fitting the music. Essentially it's old-school death metal with rabies. There could be some question over how long this formula will take before it wears out, but with an album almost the length of an EP, that is not a problem. This is superb music which leaves the listener wanting more.
When the Spanish label Xtreem Music stumbled upon the Swedish old school death metallers of Verminous they were quick to offer the guys a contract for a debut album. Now that "Impious Sacrilege" is out I can say that they were right in their decision. Even though Verminous have been around for only slightly more than a year now they are presenting themselves on this recording with a remarkable amount of maturity. This is one of the most intense and aggressive old school death metal albums that I've heard for some time now and I am sure that anyone who wish to bring back the old days when Grave, Dismember, Entombed and others were fronting the first wave of Swedish death metal will come to like this album. This was before In Flames and followers were taking over and the more melodic side won thousands of fans from all over the world. Now, there is nothing wrong with In Flames, in fact they are one of my favorite bands, but this is as you all know something completely different. An intro worthy of a horror movie and a few other samples help to set the atmosphere to something similar to Entombed's "Clandestine", one of the best death metal albums ever leaving Swedish soil. I wouldn't dream of placing Verminous on the same pedistal as these legends of the past but they have still composed quality music that will appeal to fans of the early Swedish bands. A solid production and equally solid musicianship make Verminous one of the most interesting new brutal death metal bands on the Swedish scene. Not really new but the best of the old.
Filthy Death / Black Metal remembering the days of cut and paste layout and xeroxed demo covers from Sweden. Even their website is designed that way which is really cool - at least for me, hehe! These guys play as if Gothenburg never existed, so to say. They started out as DELVE, who released a demo in 2002 as well as the MCD "The Dead Amongst" and now returned as VERMINOUS to pollute the world with blasphemous and insane old school madness with an approach that is more in the line of acts like GROTESQUE and early SLAYER than NIHILIST or DISMEMBER. Titles like 'Chanting Of Ghouls', 'Grotesque Visions' or 'Of Evil Blood' give you an idea, right? The productions could be a bit dirtier and with more feedback for my taste but it is good anyway. I do not think anything has been triggered here, so VERMINOUS are closer to their influences even in that aspect. As I have only received a copy with a promotional leaflet there is not much I can tell you about the package apart from the cover which shows a putrid screaming madonna with an imp - like creature in her arms... no flowers and poetry here, need I say that? Sometimes the riffing is slightly similar to KAAMOS at times. This could also be interesting for people into NIFELHEIM or for example SUICIDAL WINDS and all other blasphemists who like it unpolished, dirty, black and relentless! In my opinion KAAMOS and SADISTIC INTENT are still better (as they were mentioned in the info) but be sure to check this band!
Sin ánimo de querer parecer excesivamente permisivo “musicalmente” hablando con el producto nacional, he de reconocer que Xtreem Music por fin ha conseguido hacerse con un elenco de bandas impresionantes, llevando una política de fichajes diferente a la de su anterior etapa bajo el nombre de Repulse Records y sabiendo donde hay que meter dinero y donde no.
La plantilla de Xtreem Music hoy por hoy cuenta con bandas bastante reconocidas del underground black/death/thrash como PAGANIZER, VERMINOUS, MISANTHROPIC, HUMAN MINCER, HOUR OF PENANCE, ROSSOMAHAAR o TOTTEN KORPS, todas ellas de un nivel altísimo y que por fin, tras los intentos de Drowned / Repulse o Abstract Emotions, puede situar a un sello español entre los más grandes de la escena underground, con todo lo que ello conlleva, oportunidades para las bandas, reconocimiento, mejora en las infraestructuras…
El sr. Dave Rotten, que de metal sabe un rato largo, ha sabido tener ojo y vista la demanda actual que existe hacia el thrash/death añejo y underground de los 80, ha sabido hacerse con gente como estos VERMINOUS quienes recuperan de una forma magistral el espíritu de la primera hornada de bandas de death metal tanto europeas como americanas. Resultado de tal mezcla, “Impious Sacrilege” suena a un cruce entre los viejos TERRORIZER, REPULSION, AUTOPSY incluso DEATH mezclados con los primeros trabajos de las viejas glorias suecas como GRAVE, GROTESQUE o UNLEASHED.
Salvando las distancias, su caso sería similar al de unos PAGANIZER, recuperar un sonido ya en desuso a base de acercar al máximo estética, producción, composición… ¿Gracia de ello? A priori ninguna puesto que no inventan nada nuevo, pero en los tiempos que corren donde el 95 % del metal que sale a la calle es o power melódico o progresivo o black/death dulzón, descafeinado y melódico, se agradecen propuestas no tan “atractivas” para la masa a primera vista, pero sí más selectas y dirigidas a un público muy concreto que hace años deambula sin encontrar siquiera una banda que le llame la atención.
Yo lo tengo muy claro, si una banda agresiva y cruda donde las haya como VERMINOUS estuviera en manos de Nuclear Blast por ejemplo y se les hiciera la promoción debida, triunfaría por todo lo alto gracias al auge del auténtico metal extremo que se está viviendo últimamente, pero la realidad es bien distinta. DIMMU BORGIR venden cientos de miles de discos a un público supuestamente “extremo”, sin embargo el resto se comen los mocos, así de simple, ¿Ejemplos? Si tanto aficionado a lo extremo hay por ahí suelto con balas, crucifijos y demás sandeces, ¿Cómo se explica que una pedazo gira EXTREMA como el “bonded by metal” esté teniendo de media 200 personas por show? Saquen sus propias conclusiones, yo me reservo la mía.
It doesn't FEEL new. It really takes me back to my thrash/speedmetal days when I was discovering the joys of fast, heavy and ugly music. All the fun of the first couple of Slayer or Exodus records. Yeah, the drummer plays with modern blasty kicks and all that, but I swear this CD just makes me think of '85. And I mean that in a fucking good way. Get past the now completely used up and hack intro thingy which every band could just as well stop putting on their fucking records now as we have heard ALL of the shit they could possibly come up with ... and you have a pure metal up your ass CD with a distinct lack of bullshit or pretense, a great raw production and performances that just scream energy. In the late 80's I was in a barband that was fucking stupid, playing GnR covers and lame - LAME originals. We practiced in this group of storage sheds along with a few other local bands.
One of these bands was a speed metal outfit and after our rehearsal myself and the guitarist would walk over and watch them jam. Once the door came down and we took our seats the band would simply fly through their set. No one could move - no room, the light was bad, the sound was iffy, but the band didn't care. They just fucking smoked. They weren't the tightest or most talented or prettiest, but when it mattered they were worth more than twenty "better" bands. They got IT. They were metal as fuck. Listening to this disc is like seeing that band play. Verminous has a lot of punch, and you can trace that to the fiendishly cool sounding bass - very early Voivod. Growly, distorted and percussive, it gives the music a lean yet powerful sound, especially when the band fires little slabs of staccato chords at the breaks.
If you try hard enough you can hear a few mistakes, and that is cool as shit. A recording like this needs the spontaneity of immediate performances, and sometimes that means things get away from the band - just for a moment. It enhances the feeling of hearing a band play live. The vocalist mixes up his delivery, keeping you with him at all times. Not the typical shouting droner, he has a few bloodcurdling screams and emphasizes his lyrics very well. The guitars are as would be expected, but combined with the punchy style of the rhythem section they come off corrosive and filthy. The solos are Slayeresque, chaotic and appropriate. And the CD is done just as you are starting to get used to it. Perfect timing. Any more and you could get bored with it, any less and you might feel a little cheated.
The songs are great, if not remarkably origional. The tempos and melodies are changed often enough that you never get overly familiar with any of them. Each song retains a certain excitement from beginning to end. Topically I guess they are all about Satan, but I don't really pay attention. They would sound just as good if they were about raising baby Koalas. Bottom Line: Yeah, I recommend this to you, mister or mizz metal person. This is the fun, fast, nasty meaty shit every metalhead needs now and then to bring them back to basics. Neither too underground nor too accessible nor too anything but living, breathing, ugly metal. The sum is far greater than the parts, as you see from the dichotomy of my scores versus my text, but some things can't be quantified. So I add a little number of my own - Overall Deadly Filthy Assfucking Metalness = 6. I believe this CD might get played again....
Verminous from Sweden play old fashioned Swedish death metal. I know you think of bands like Dismember, Entombed and the likes but Verminous choose to play a more obscure style, like it was played more than 10 years ago by Grotesque. Grotesque, as we all know, was the predecessor of At The Gates. This style of metal is on first hearing a bit chaotic but this contributes to the overall atmosphere of blasphemy that oozes from the music and the artwork.
This is death metal how it was meant to be played; filthy, devilish, aggressive and deprived of all things civilized and beautiful. Musically they play in the same vein as the aforementioned Grotesque and Kaamos.
Personally I hear some resemblance to Soulreaper as well.
There are a few minor mistakes to be heard on this record but this doesn’t matter that much; this is the type of music you have to feel instead of analyze. The production is by no means flawless but manages to capture a pseudo live feeling that leaves me hungering for a gig of these Swedish madmen. Although there’s a shitload of death metal releases coming out every month Impious Sacrilege is a breath of fresh air in a scene dominated by US brutal death and melodic death metal.
Watch out for the upcoming EP released through Nuclear Winter Records!
“Good old times were always better...”. Well, according to that somewhat ´brave´ sentence, the name of THIS game is called ´old-school...´ and particularly old-school Death Metal. Verminous (ex-Delve) from Sweden has 5 ambitious and ´we-know-how-to make-it´-guys in the band line-up who have decided to swear in the name of an old-school (underground) Death Metal sound into vein of Grotesque, Necrovore, Incubus, Severance, etc. – mainly sounding like many aggressive and vicious American underground Death/Thrash Metal acts in the later half of the ´80s and that´s really fine with me. Even if there´s a mention in the band´s info kit that arrived along with the CD about Verminious being a Swedish mixture of both obviously old-Morbid Angel and old-Slayer musically, I wouldn´t subscribe it with that big and screaming letters at all. To be honest, I can hardly find any of those influences out of their sound unless intensity and brutality aren´t the main reference points to Verminous´ relentless and rather evil sound?
Verminous have absolutely a good thing going on as far as IMPIOUS SACRILEGE is concerned musically. For those people who were already turning rocks upside down in the early ´80s for finding some of the best hidden gems from the worldwide underground metal scene back in the day, should find Verminous´ devilish ´Dethrash´ quite appealing and satisfaction level should be reached and guaranteed relatively easily even. Everything on IMPIOUS SACRILEGE sounds like the guys haven´t even considered to explore any new grounds for this type of extreme metal, but have decided to stick to the old-school Death/Thrash Metal thing by as tight and strong grip as possible. And they have done it with an uncompromising conviction and devotion ´coz it´s really hard to become convinced that IMPIOUS SACRILEGE is actually a 2003 release and not a release from the mid/late ´80s. Short, wicked and raw guitar riffs, whipping solos, twisted and possessed vocal harmonies, etc. it´s all been included into the old-school recipe of IMPIOUS SACRILEGE and such songs as “Spawn of Satan´s Curse”, “Chanting of Ghouls”, “Of Evil Blood” and “Verminous Fluids” all speak for massive volumes of a total dedication to the ancient sounds of death, decay and blasphemy.
Verminous is an unholy piece of Devil´s work... unholier than thou, suckers of a pitch-black darkness and unnamed evilness. Watch out for them as you will be the next one on their list!
Spanish label Xtreem Music is on a crusade. Sign as much Old School Death Metal bands that emulates the Swedish touch, sadly not all cases are successful, though I've heard some pretty wicked releases from the Spanish label.
Anyway, Verminuous are another Swedish act obsessed with the Old School scene that inspired so many bands nowadays. But as bad-ass I might been lately in my reviews, I can't give this a bad score, at last a record that gives me that "Old-school" feeling!
Verminous are aggressive but not brutal, they have a pretty good share of melodies in their songs, which with a healthy amount of violence, kick ass vocals and insane drumming makes a perfect combo.
After a pretty useless intro, (properly named "Intro"), "Spawn Of Satan's Curse" comes shredding it's way off, and it doesn't stop there, all songs are a riff-fest of enormous proportions, while songs are rather short, they have plenty of variety, so you won't bore in any of them. Other killer songs are "Malevolent Effacement" , "Chanting Of Ghouls" and "Verminous Fluids". Most of The songs are complemented by small sound samples of -I assume- B-class horror movies, which gives a Grindcorish touch to the album.
I have no troubles with the production, while not superb, does the trick with ease and the cover art is very properly for the type of music.
If you have no trouble with "Evil" lyrics and want to have some share of aggression and violence in your stereo, do yourself a favor and get this release, while not the most best Death Metal release of the year, I must tell you that is quite enjoyable.
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