Seattle's Book of Black Earth have really delivered some crushing, molten, sludge-filled death metal here on their debut for Prosthetic debut, called Horoskopus (how's that for a neat title?). This 5-piece is as heavy as they get, their sound filled with behemoth guitar riffs, beefy bass lines, pounding drums, and some solid Dan Swano/Edge of Sanity inspired death metal vocals. After the opening doom instrumental "2160", the band follows with the crusher "Death of the Sun", a real furious slice of classic Swedish style death metal. Things don't let up from there, as 'Total Control" follows, murderous guitar thunder and pummeling blast beats crash through the mix, showing a band with plenty of power and evil intent. The massive title track has some of the most stirring riffs you'll hear in any death metal song this year, rivaling the crunch found on the recent Grave CD. Slow and grueling sludge is all the rage on the dark "Cult Of Dagon", a heavy yet melodic doom number that just reeks of power and majesty, and it's a tone that is crossed over into the funereal "God of War", a truly epic sounding doom number that starts out slow and heavy then morphs into a raging death metal piece at mach 10 speeds. Let's not forget that this is a death metal album at its core, especially when tracks like "From Heaven" and "The Great Year" are offered up, two perfect examples of the genre featuring unholy growls and thunderous guitar riffs. The band closes out this crushing album with the epic "Christ Pathogen", with spooky keyboards providing a chilling backdrop to relentless blast beats, brusing yet melodic riffs, and evil vocals.
I've said it before in recent times, but Prosthetic Records really have outdone themselves this year with a host of top notch releases from some very special extreme metal acts. Add Book of Black Earth to that growing list.
Track Listing
- 2160
- Death Of The Sun
- Total Control
- Horoskripture
- Cult Of Dagon
- Funeral Of Peace
- God Of War
- The Darkest Age
- From Heaven
- The Great Year
- Christ Pathogen
Printer Friendly Page
Send to a Friend
