Damnation "Destructo Evangelia" CD
[Candlelight]
Not bad! This Swedish act cranks out some killer black metal on this release, with no real frills at all. The recording is kind of going for that Darkthrone aesthetic, and I can live with it since it is fairly balanced, but I do think they've failed to truly master that vibe here. The guitar tone is ragged and thinly veiled with distortion, which is nice, but it comes off as a little unnatural on this one, and there's no real bass presence to fill in the gaps. The drums are distant and raw but possess a good thump that helps, but it's just guitar and vocals otherwise, so there's a definite hole in there where basslines would help out significantly. The vocals are basically snarled screams/yells with a lot of heavy reverb and faint delay happening, so even though the performance isn't as over the top as some such acts, the vocals definitely provide a lot of aggression. The songwriting, though, is dead on. I'm all for it. They thrown down a few shorter tracks that keep things straightforward, plus they pull off longer compositions of seven minutes or more - maintaining a fair blend of repetition and changeups that don't feel stale or redundant to me. "Insulter of Jesus Christ!" goes so far as to toss in a hell of a lot of punked out rock 'n' roll, making for a classic black metal meets Motörhead meets Discharge sort of style. The title track is more moderately paced and plodding at points, picking up the pace at times, but definitely focusing more on the slower side of things (the break just past the halfway point with layered lead lines over percussion is awesome), and it's always nice to hear a black metal band that eases up on the speed if you ask me. "When Creation Dies" takes that even farther with an excellent little discordant passage that uses spoken vocals to boot, amidst intense yet memorable speeds, making for one of my favorite moments on the disc (sadly the end of this track does drag on and get very tiresome, but that's the only such occurrence herein). Despite the succinct tracklist two cover songs are also included: Vulcano's "Bloody Vengeance", and "Armageddon" from Bathory, both of which are slightly catchier but fit in well with the original material, though each does have its own distinctions (and both are excellent choices). The layout is minimal as fuck, all in black and white with a few token black metal band photos with lots of spikes and shit and stripped down artwork. No lyrics are included, and in fact, there's barely any text information at all. The core band members are named Churchburner and Insulter of Jesus Christ, too (What's that? There's actually a song that that shares a name with a band member!?). Cheesy? Yep. But hey, that's fuckin' black metal, right? This is good stuff. It has a few faults, but nothing that holds it back per se. Aside from "Insulter of Jesus Christ!" and portions of "Eternal Black" (which uses more inventive picking patterns and note combinations) it's not terribly creative, but I really like the songwriting a lot, so this is one that I would recommend to those who prefer the rougher side of the genre's roots. Well done. (7/10)
Running time - 40:06, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: Insulter of Jesus Christ!, Destructo Evangelia, Eternal Black]
Candlelight Records - http://www.candlelightrecordsusa.com

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