Liste der Bands Death Metal Krisiun Southern Storm

I finally have managed to get a hold of 'Southern Storm', the latest album from Brazilian death metal titans Krisiun. I first got into the band when I heard 'Vicious Wrath' from their previous effort, 2006's 'Assassination', and heard a promo version of this CD last year. I finally got it cheap on Play.com, only 4.99, what a deal.

This is an album designed to destroy crowds at gigs. Plain and simply, this album contains so many brutal riffing segments that it makes your head spin. Wailing guitars crash into melodic solos, which in turn melt into thunderous chug sections ('Sentenced Morning') or just rocket off into earth quaking blast fests ('Twisting Sights'). Krisiun have always been about the blast; they don't try to overwhelm you with too many melodies or technical passages, they just stay true to their death metal roots and insist on slaying everyone in their way.

Vocally the band is standard fare, but personally its nice to hear a death metal vocalist who doesn't try to pig squeal or scream these days. Alex Camargo rarely gets above a low growl, but there's a strength behind his vocals that hooks you in, plus a good standard of clarity in them too. He sounds particularly malignant and menacing on brooding masterpiece 'Minotaur'. Lyrically he stays close to topics like Satanism, darkness and anti-Christianity, all your standard fare for this sort of music but he delivers it with a certain raw threat that adds to the theme.

The main flaw in this album is, surprisingly, the Sepultura cover. Yes, Brazilian death metal titans playing a classic of Brazilian death metal should have been golden, but they picked the wrong song. 'Refuse/Resist' is a good cover, it's well executed and there is a certain magic to it but why not something more suited to Krisiun's sound like 'Beneath the Remains' or 'Dead Embryonic Cells'? To be honest its a pretty small gripe, and when compared with the quality of the rest of the record, I mean come on, how many bad covers have you heard in your life? It's not bad, not at all, but it could have been better. Track highlights are the face melting opener 'Slaying Steel', the rumbling, atmospheric 'Massacre Under the Sun' and the all conquering closer 'Whore of the Unlight', which refuses to let the album finish with anything less than full on rage.

When you get this record, and I truly suggest you do, you will hold in your hand one of the best death metal records of the past few years. Krisiun's level of playing skill is excellent, their riffing is dense and powerful, the blast is intense and sometimes relentless and the vocal delivery as brutal as they come. 'Southern Storm' is probably the best description this album could ever get, buy it and submit yourself to the barrage. Essential.