Atakhama: Existence Indifferent

Atakhama is a side-project/supergroup of sorts, made up of musicians on the Finnish metal scene from bands like Swallow the Sun, Funeris Nocturnum, Machine Men, and Sotajumala. Their debut album Existence Indifferent is a brutal and punishing affair that rocks with machine-like precision, that will no doubt please fans of groups like Behemoth, Decapitated, Bloodbath, Morbid Angel, Vader, and Zyklon. Basically, as you can imagine, Existence Indifferent is straightforward, slightly technical, venemous death metal, and Atakhama do it well. Raging blast beats, growling vocals. bludgeoning riffs, and twin guitar harmonies make up the framework here, and each track is really solid and epic sounding. Take "Predatory Acts" for example, which features plenty of melodic lead guitar work from Simo Rahikainen and J-V Hintikka, powerful growls from Jimmy Salmi, and the astounding drum work of Timo Hakkinen, who honestly never lets up throughout this album. Listen to the mighty riff of "Refueling the Black Blood", a killer cut that again sees Hakkinen flailing like a crazed madman, or the grueling death march of "Dead Wounded Imprisoned", which brings to mind Hypocrisy or Tagtgren era Bloodbath. It's not until the closing instrumental title track that things slow down one bit, and perhaps that's the lone drawback here, as the listener is not given the opportunity to take a breather once during this album. But hey, this is death metal after all, and as I mentioned once already, there's no shortage of intense brutality here, and for a debut, this one is damn good. Let's see now if Atakhama becomes more than just a side project in the months and years to come.

Track Listing
1) Regiment of Inhumanity
2) Lifeless and Blistering
3) Predatory Acts
4) World to Dominate
5) Refueling the Black Blood
6) Dead Wounded Imprisoned
7) Consequence
8) Hypothesis of Humankind
9) Existence Indifferent

Added: July 24th 2006
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 2758
Language: english

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