26th part of short reviews.
VANIK – II Dark Season
Year of release: 2018
Label: Shadow Kingdom Records
Rating: 7,5 / 10
US Heavy / Speed Metal that is really Heavy / Speed Metal, not trying to be extreme. The band was founded by the live guitarist of MIDNIGHT. And the weak side of MIDNIGHT, in my opinion, has always been these very attempts to be extreme. Here, the purity of the style is respected, and this benefits the album. Energetic music with rumbling bass is expectedly reminiscent of VENOM. The songs are short, but very rich. The theme of the album is based on all sorts of horrors, so the music has an ominous touch in the vein of retro movies and books. Cool!
VEILED – In Blinding Presence
Year of release: 2019
Label: Into Endless Chaos Records
Rating: 7,5 / 10
A nice debut album from the new German band. Mentally unhealthy metal, purposefully trying to destroy your perception and arrange a whirlwind of various grotesque visions in your head. Intense music, full of dissonances, is equally similar to DEATHSPELL OMEGA and late MAYHEM. Perceived surprisingly easy, but you need to behave prudently; you don’t have time to look back, as it pulls you into its net and you’ll wake up in a room with soft walls.
CARNATION – Chapel of Abhorrence
Year of release: 2018
Label: Season of Mist
Rating: 7 / 10
Death Metal in the vein of such classic acts as ENTOMBED, GRAVE, BOLT THROWER, GRAVE, CANNIBAL CORPSE. Everything is done according to the canons, there is a pleasant addition in the form of short sinister synthesizer parts, and the voice of the vocalist strikingly reminds George Fisher. Plus a cover by Juanjo Castellano that looks like it was drawn in the early 90's. It would seem that there is nothing to complain about, but ... like all recent releases of Season of Mist, there is a place for some polishing, as if the album was originally made not for musicians themselves, but for the market purposes. Therefore, if I want to listen to something in the best Swedish tradition, I will take some of the releases of Memento Mori.
NAZRAK – Cantiques funèbres
Year of release: 2018
Label: Wolfspell Records
Rating: 5,7 / 10
Very sugary (just listen to those synth "bells"...) French atmospheric metal. Music, as usual, is plentifully watered with syrup and showered with marzipan. However, inside you can find, as our local smart ass metalloids like to say, a bit of "coal". But no more than on ALCEST first albums, for example. All in all, this music is not for me, it's something very romantic and soft.
DØDSFALL – Døden skal ikke vente
Year of release: 2019
Label: Osmose Productions
Rating: 5 / 10
Osmose for some reason continues to release albums of bands proudly using discredited label "Norwegian Black Metal". The professional “critic” will surely call the new DØDSFALL album “eclectic” or “versatile”. I will say that here they just grabbed everything that came to hand. There are mediocre pieces from the category of “compose a riff in 5 seconds.” There are borrowings from honorary countrymen like IMMORTAL (and who else would you expect?). There are sugary melodies, stretched into half a song. Suddenly there are flowery parties in the vein of DEATH's "Symbolic" - good, but inappropriate. And so on and so forth ... The album was recorded at Necromorbus studio but you don’t feel it at all. he sound is completely devoid of black magic characteristic of the Swedish studio. I do not understand why the Norwegians continue to rape the corpse of the once great national phenomenon, thereby only disgracing themselves.
English (UK) 
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