Unconsecrated: Awakening in the Cemetery Grave

This release is basically everything that Unconsecrated has recorded in their relatively brief career. I don't know what the future holds for these guys, but fans will be pleased to have access to this music, particularly since it originally came out in small limited-edition releases and therefore risks being hard to find, if it isn't already.

Most readers will want to know if there is anything about this band that would make them want to track down this collection of previously released songs. My answer is only a tentative yes. The music is pretty good, but is mostly an extended nod to old school Scandinavian Death metal. If you enjoy that style of extreme music, then this recording is for you, but keep in mind that there is very little that is either new or innovative here, just several songs in the same style. It's all played very well, but I tend to prefer some variety, especially with more death-oriented metal. The lack of melodic lines and thematic developments is fine, but usually makes for a shorter rather than a longer release. To be fair, these songs did originally come out as shorter releases. Still, as a body of work, there isn't much variety here.

The lyrics, to my mind, were a little more interesting, though "interesting" may not be the right word. They are, after all, little more than a theme and variations on the topic of being undead, wandering through unholy cemetery's and noticing the inevitable decay and corruption of the flesh. The track "Exhumating Profaned Flesh," for example, talks about a body so old and decayed that even a fly wouldn't be interested in getting near it. There's something oddly funny about that image, though I'm not sure I can put my finger on what makes it so. I also thought the song "Recremated by the Sunlight" had an unusually funny quality to it--I mean, just try to imagine a horror movie in which a cremated corpse comes to life and is then recremated by the light of the sun. I hope these guys don't take these ideas too seriously, because this stuff is far better if understood in the same comic / horror vein as the Evil Dead movies.

There is an instrumental track, "Breath of Desolation," that is actually kind of pretty, though I'd hate to find out just what kind of breath it actually is.

Track Listing:

1. Intro
2. Buried in the Crypt
3. Exhumating Profaned Flesh
4. Slave to the Grave
5. Breath of Desolation (Instrumental)
6. Path of the Ancient Gods
7. Dark Awakening
8. Over the Throne
9. Temple of Darkness
10. Descending into the Abyss
11. Tombs of Fallen Angels
12. Recremated by the Sunlight
13. Journey into the Crypts of the Dead
14. Morbid Dawn of the Deceased
15. Unconsecrated Cemetery
16. Recently Deceased
17. The Curse of Evocation
18. Dead Forever (Unleashed Cover)

Added: August 20th 2012
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 1789
Language: english

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