I had heard Anatomy’s debut Where Angels Die a while ago and thought it was certainly very interesting, so when I saw this album (their sophomore release I believe) on an internet distro I decided to pick it up. As soon as I managed to stop chuckling over the lame title (yeah, all you nerds know what I’m talking about; one of the only things cheesier would be a band that decided to name itself ‘Sithlord’… oh wait…) and actually listened to the disc, I was very impressed. The music is top notch, and I certainly shouldn’t make fun of the band’s penchant for strange nomenclature – any band that sports a guitarist called ‘Hippyslayer’, a drummer called ‘Hellcunt’, and a bassist who simply goes by the name ‘Ja’ has to be at least somewhat cool.

I have no idea how to classify this band’s sound, but I suppose ‘death metal with a black metal edge and some keyboards thrown in’ is a good enough approximation. The album is well produced and all the musicians perform well, though none of them stand out. Guitars are buzzing and repetitive, but have an energy to them that makes each song seem heavier and faster; sometimes they start performing epic or melodic sections but never linger on them. The drums are excellent, but suffer from the monotony of most death metal drumming. The vocals, which are a low rasp but not as throaty as most death metal, are the only thing that I think could have been done significantly better, but are fine as they are I suppose. Lyrics aren’t totally satanic, but are done well (despite the sometimes silly subject matter). All you keyboard hating purists out there shouldn’t worry, the keyboards here are not too intrusive…