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Dead Congregation: Purifying consecrated ground

10/03/10 || Khlysty

As of late, I have developed an unhealthy interest towards what some people call “necro-death metal” (which, in my humblest of opinions, is one totally super-retardo moniker for a sub-sub genre). Teitanblood’s “Seven Chalices” was the record that really got me going and, having already listened to –and greatly admired- Dead Congregation’s “Graves of the Archangels”, I decided to review for GD this Greek band’s first foray into the realms of some of the sickest, grimiest, most depraved death metal of our times.

So, “Purifying consecrated ground” was Dead Congregation’s first official recorded output and within its five-songs, 20-minutes length the band blows its competition clearly outta the water. Guys, trust me when I say that this is death metal to reinstate your faith in death metal. If you got sick and tired by all them hyper-technical bands which exchanged musicality and song-writing for spastic not-here-not-there micro-riffing; if you got bored by older bands treading water or –worse- rehashing their own vomit; if you though that you’d commit multiple crimes against humanity if your ears were violated one more time by the latest “death-core” shit, then this is going to be a transcendental experience.

See, Dead Congregation lay down the law from the first second this E.P. starts playing. A filthy, grimy guitar tone invades the space between your ears, the drumming sounds like a horny Gatling gun, the vocals come as the growls of something long dead and rotten… this is death metal at its most primal, most ugly form. It’s also surprisingly concise and groovy, the songs coming, rampaging and going with scalpel precision and always keeping in mind that brutality for brutality’s sake can get boring real fast. So, while the music’s sickness in always as upfront as possible, there’s a lot going on in the tempo and time-signature department to keep the blood flowing.

The most impressive parts of the songs come when the band, from a blastbeat ridden passage, goes right into slow and sick doomy territory, without ever losing its incredible sense of timing and compositional accuracy. In the instrumental department, the two guitars work the old black magick, either riffing in tandem or when one of them goes into surprisingly melodic leads of just tremolo-picked phrasing. Also impressive is the fact that, even though the songs follow convoluted paths of development, they always retain a sense of groove and individuality, never lapsing into blender-in-heat territory.

Even when the band stretches out a bit –as it happens during the 5 minutes of “Lucid curse” or the 6 minutes of “Auguring an eternal war”- there’s never a sense of loosing focus or of masturbation-mentality. These longer songs are just evidence of the band’s already mature song-crafting abilities and of the things that would come. This E.P. is very close to what I consider perfection in death metal and I cannot but suggest to anyone with even a passing interest on the genre to buy without fear. These guys won’ rip you off; they’ll just rip you a new one…

8,5

Information
Released: 2005
Label: Konqueror Records (2008 re-release, Enucleation Records)
Website: Dead Congregation MySpace
Band
A.V.: guitars and vocals
V.V.: drums
T.K.: guitars
A.A.: bass

Tracklist
01.Vomitchrist
02. Lucid curse
03. Feasting angelcunts
04. Auguring an eternal war
05. Downward spiral of morbidity

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