IMMORTAL RITES? Ain’t that the opening track of the Death Metal hit Altars Of Madness of Morbid Angel? Yeah! But those among you, who haven’t known the Alfdorf-based band before (such as me), the sound of the band’s second album For Tyrant’s Sake has nothing in common with the typical US Death Metal style the bad boys around Trey Azagthoth “co-invented”.
The quartet celebrates wonderfully melodic Death Metal with a strong Gothenburg-imprint. The guys may have listened to the early works of Dark Tranquillity, such as The Gallery, in particular, whereas they focus less on diversity in speed than the Scandinavians did, but the melodic and harmonic guitar elements are used in a similar kind.
Now, one can ask oneself of course if this world really needs another melodic Death Metal album. I say yes, because Dark Tranquillity and In Flames as the spearheads of this genre have dissociated quite much from their roots and have thus left a void for high-quality melodic Death Metal.
If you listen to the album a bit closer, then more facets appear with every new run, which distinguish For Tyrant’s Sake from all these Dark Tranquillity, In Flames and At The Gates clones. E.g. the opening track For Tyrant’s Sake rushes in a Naglfar manner before it continues with the deadly groovy verse, and Daemon Dawn reminds both in rhythm and guitar riffing even of Unleashed evergreens such as Before The Creation Of Time.
Singer/guitarist Philipp (who is no more part of the current line up) uses clean and harmonic vocals (besides his brutal, but less unique voice), which fits in fine in the overall sound.
Finally, a little downer has to be mentioned. The generally felicitous production of the former Atrocity drummer Martin Schmidt could have sounded a bit rougher, which might have suited the ten songs well.