2012’s debut ‘Summoning Black Gods’ was an absolute smasher and now the German death metal crew are back with another killer record ‘The Mysterious Ways Of Repetitive Art’.
On this album the band have clearly matured and have developed a more individual sound and in doing this have slightly altered direction. Instrumental opener ’The Mysterious Ways…’ evokes an eerie atmosphere and I can imagine it playing out over the end credits of a classic 80’s Italian horror movie. The thrashy ‘The Dreaming Of The Flame’ follows which reminds me of early Thanatos especially with the howling vocal style of Laurent T.
Just like on the debut the band flit between slow doomy passages and full throttle speed which keep the listener guessing and this adds to the creepy atmosphere as on ‘Masquerade In Red’ as does the odd smattering of Black Metal elements and acoustic guitar interludes.
Lyrically the inspirations are clearly occult novels, the band thoughtfully informing us on the liner notes with the aforementioned ‘The Dreaming…’ based on Charles Robert Mathurin’s ‘Melmoth The Wanderer’ and my favourite track ‘Lord Of All Death’ based on ‘The Gods Of Pegana’ by Lord Dunsany.
The band are in cracking form on this record with Cedric & Laurent’s twin guitars slicing through the mix like scalpels wielded by some deranged serial killer. The songwriting talent here is formidable and it’s great to see the band adding more atmospheric elements to their mix of old school death & thrash. This is a more well rounded album than their debut ‘Summoning Black Gods’ and all the better for it.
(8/10 Mark Eve)
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