Reviews
Dawn Of Azazel: Sedition
05/08/09 || Daemonomania
Take Cryptopsy’s “And then you’ll beg”, subtract all the jazzy bits, chuck in a chunk of Burnt by the Sun and Suffocation, kick it in the face, and ship it to New Zealand. Then give it a badge. Guard your genitals friends. For this is a ball-stomper of the highest order.
Chaotic, nasty, virulent death metal awaits the listener. Lots of it. Nonstop in fact – there are some slow bits here and there but overall the vibe is punishment… FOR ALL MY SINS! Is this easy to sit down and take in from start to finish? Hell no. But if you’re looking for that pick-me-up right before taking a jog, walking into work, or diving headfirst off a cliff onto the sharp rocks below, “Sedition” will do the trick.
What else to say? The production is great, allowing you to hear the impossibly precise guitarwork (with solos, yay!), incredibly dazzling drumming, throat-shredding strained Gremlin vocals, and occasional but satisfying bass. This music morphs and changes so frequently that one may have a bit of trouble deciphering which track is which. But let the insanity in. You won’t be sorry.
Lyrically these dudes are working hard too. Check this bit out from “Violence and uncleanliness” (subtitle: A night with IG’s mom):
Swallow the darkest of poisons
Distilled from dirt and silt
Inebriated by uncleanliness
Violence stirs in this filth
Eclipse the sun, yield to none
Smother the heavens
And taint the light of its stars
The road of excess
Leads to the palace of wisdom
Ha HA ha! The overall tone is one of triumphant evil. No wonder the lead singer/bassist raised some concerns over the fact that he is a cop and performs in a band like this. Being arrested sucks as it is, but would you want to be handcuffed in a squad car with a big bald dude screaming about succumbing to his carnal force? No thanks.
This is misanthropic enough to make Kampfar grin, complicated enough to raise the Duff’s techboner, and downright mean enough to crush the cheerful output of both Megadeth and In Flames (which would make Smalley cry). And, uh, Lord K might like it despite the lack of chick vocals and electronics. Sorry to all those writers I didn’t work in, but I can’t think of a way to relate Dawn of Azazel to you specifically. Don’t feel bad.
On a side note, the cover looks like something that would give GD staffer and goatraper extraordinaire Baalzamon wet dreams – a flying, disembodied goat head with a human face and a wide open mouth! If this seductive spectre existed in real life, he’d be buying it flowers right now.
- Information
- Released: 2005
- Label: Ibex Moon
- Website: www.dawnofazazel.com
- Band
- Rigel Walshe: vocals, bass
- Joe Bonnett: guitar
- Martin Cavanagh: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Spare None
- 02. Swathed in Impurity
- 03. The Road to Babalon
- 04. Descent into Eminence
- 05. Villainy Endures
- 06. Sedition
- 07. Violence and Uncleanliness
- 08. Sin (Amongst the Kings)
- 09. Master of the Strumpets
