Apocalypse - "Pandaemonium"

After a gloomy intro made of keyboards (“Praeludium in D Minor” the album begins with ““Hanged, Drawn and Quartered”, a song as powerful as it is sparse in riffing. On the other hand, in this album extreme metal is devoted to those bands who in the 1980s began to lay the foundations for genres such as thrash and black metal, therefore Bathory, Venom, and in some ways also the Teutonic thrash metal school. It’s very nice to hear that there are artists who still refer to certain stylistic coordinates, harking back to a still fascinating past. In this case we have only Erymanthon Seth to take care of all the instruments and in an excellent manner too.

Certain keyboard inserts in a primordial fabric are surprising. This also takes you back to the black metal of the early nineties, but it would be right to mention everything that Quorthorn did as the primary influence of these Apocalypse. However, the album knows how to alternate outbursts like the song already mentioned at the beginning of the review with others with a decidedly more epic and solemn flavor (“Witchhunt”). This characteristic will be repeated throughout the album and will be fruitful in the album’s economy. Undoubtedly you need to understand what this musician wants to propose to appreciate this album. This is raw and primal metal, very dark yet majestic.

If you love some of these sounds that were still in embryo in the 80s then you will love this album, otherwise not. In short, everything here is deliberately retro and if you are looking for modernism and experimentation from the 2000s you are not in the right place. For us it is a record to promote, courageous and very personal.

Tracklist:

1. Praeludium in D Minor

2. Hanged, Drawn and Quartered

3. Witchhunt

4. Pit of Oblivion

5. The Well of Deception

6. Broken Illusion

7. Son of Fire

8. Pandaemonium

9. Final