Purgatory

Cultus Luciferi - The Splendour of Chaos

Written by: AB on 14/12/2008 22:42:48

Germany. The European mainland bastion of all things metal. Yeah, we have Sweden and their melodeath Gothenburg scene. We have Norway, and their black metal. Poland and their death metal. Italy and their deathcore. Finland and their gothic metal. And so on and so forth. But it's in Germany where the leather clad hordes live, it's in Germany where extreme metal festivals attract 50k+ people, and heavy metal records sell as well as popular rock music. Though mostly known for it's formative thrash bands as well as their grand traditional and true heavy metal acts, Germany sports a great many bands in all the metal sub genres. In my particular field of interest, death metal, the Germans also have a thriving underground scene, with several of my favourite DM albums being German as an effect, especially Necrophagist's "Epitaph" and Defeated Sanity's brutal "Psalms of the Moribund" are high on my list. Well, now this long rambling finally leads to the band in question, as Purgatory is both German and plays death metal, and thus already should catch the attention of fans of extreme metal, as it is considered a kind of sign of quality. Purgatory has been around since 1993, making them veterans of the genre, and they play what they call "pure Death fuckin' Metal".

"Pure Death fuckin' Metal" apparently equals to aggressive and fast death metal, rooted in or inspired of old school death as well as war metal. The guttural roars of vocalist Dreier commands the fray that is the music, with blasting old school drumming, which changes back and forth all the time and still keeps the aggressive pace, and bitter war metal inspired riffing. Listen to the excellent "Ruler of the East" or "Forbidden Wisdom" for an angry dose of prime German death, as it is a prime example of the super drumming, and Purgatory's pure death fuckin' metal in general. Solos are almost totally omitted from the record, a conscious choice for Purgatory whose death metal is down to earth and not flashy in any way, however, the few solos present are long, early Morbid Angel inspired affairs - listen to the slower track "Pits of Utumno" for some old school axe handling in the midst of blistering death metal.

All in all this is a well done if not entirely original death metal record. Evil and hoarse, it brings forth memories that will please the old death metal crew. The raw brutality of the croaky growls and the sometimes dual vocal attacks, combined with the lo-fi old school death metal instrument handling should also easily convince fans of Vader and the likes, as it is a sound Purgatory is close to. Yet another quality death metal album that won't lure new fans into the genre, but should appease the old guard.

7

Download: Ruler of the East, Forbidden Wisdom, Burial of a Plague
For the fans of: Vader
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Release date 30.05.2008
Regain Records

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