Immortal Souls Mordecai

Item: Divine Wintertime / Through The Woods, Towards The Dawn
Author: Grindboy

Divine Wintertime / Through The Woods, Towards The Dawn

(1999)

Reviewed by Grindboy

Discogs YouTube

Label Little Rose ProductionsDead Zine1999

grindcore heavy metal melodic death metal symphonic black metal

Woah!!! Thank you, Little Rose Productions. Here they have given us a four song EP each from two fantastic Finnish bands, Immortal Souls and Mordecai.

Immortal Souls comes first, and I don't even know how to make this review reflect the excitement I have about this band. I haven't been this stoked over a band in at least a year. Death metal, distinctly European, but without equal. Technical, but not the least bit self-indulgent. The majority of the time there are two rhythm guitars playing -- one low and driving, and one higher and lead-like. Rather than playing all out solos, though, it more or less creates the melody (mostly simple, but played as fast as possible), which is generally followed by the vocals. Now don't let me lose you here -- the vocals are growled as one would expect (right in between the ultra low style of Crimson Thorn or Metanoia and the un-black scream of Zao or Horde), but the inflection goes right along with the second guitar, creating an effect not at all unlike vocal melody. The prevailing tempo isn't a monotonous blast beat-a-thon, but there is something in the drumming that keeps the songs feeling urgent. Their last demo was reviewed as doom metal (and I'm led to believe that it was) but those days have been left behind here.

Put all this together and you have, IMHO, the death metal release of the year. All four songs positively rip. There is no dull moment. It bears mentioning again how the band has magnificently incorporated musical proficiency into totally accessible songs. Beyond this, I don't know what words to use. "Christ Mass" got put on the $1 Cross Rhythms Extreme Music Sampler, so if my inability to do this band justice gives you pause, check 'em out there and you'll have your proof.

Mordecai has a pretty tough act to follow here, but they hold up their end well enough. Leaning more toward the un-black side of things, they've created a great sound for themselves. Like IS, they don't just blast beat their way from here to eternity, but instead mix things up a bit to keep everything interesting. Keyboards are used, but minimally, so they don't get in the way of the guitar loving metalhead. Mordecai is a very good band, and they offer four very good songs.

Both bands sound great -- absolutely top-notch production. The insert also gives you both album covers full sized, depending on how you're holding it. There's really nothing at all to complain about with this cd. As far as the rating goes, you can probably consider Immortal Souls a 10 and Mordecai an 8.

9/10