### Dying Embrace: Era of tribulation

#### 18/03/13 || BamaHammer

Any bands out there who are legendary enough within any scene who have any aspirations whatsoever of releasing a compilation album should take note of Dying Embrace’s “Era of tribulation”. This is how it’s done, kiddies. This album is a tidy conglomeration of four EPs/Demos that span the entirety of Dying Embrace’s early career from 1998-2000 (and it’s their only released material by the way). If you already know ze Dying Embrace, then you know that the music itself is heavy as lead and groovier than the ’70s. Jimmy Palkhivala proves he is one of death/doom’s premier riff writers, and he delivers the goods on track after track with his stoner’d-out, fuzz-driven sound, creating a hypnotic edge to every song on here. Vik Bhat is also at his sick best with the vocals. His throaty croak is on par with any black metal shrieker out there, and his overall sound, like I said, is just plain sick. As for the production, this album sounds like it was recorded with a four-track that was barely operable. However, as the kvltist in me always says, good songwriting trumps good production any day. We’ll just call it tr00. The compilation also comes with a very thoughtfully formulated booklet design. Yes, the cover art (and the logo) is as badass as it gets, but the inside is where it shows its true charm. It’s a collage of old photos of the band members doing what they did best back in the day, and it really gives you a feel for the passion that Dying Embrace puts into their craft as well as the love the Indian scene has had for metal for years now.

The bottom line is that this is a fantastic anthology of Dying Embrace’s history up until now. If you like groovy-as-fuck riffing in the vein of old-school death/doom, you can’t go wrong with this compilation. Or this band. These guys are fantastic.

9/10: This is the standard for old school compilations.