DEAD CONGREGATION

I will be the first to admit that I'm a fan of the INCANTATION/IMMOLATION brand of filth covered, death metal iniquity, a style that is not as easy to pull off as it may sound. As John McEntee always says, it is all about capturing a certain feeling. Seattle's DRAWN AND QUARTERED has had it down cold for years now, actually raising their game considerably due to improvements in the songwriting department. Though I would stop short of saying the musical product of Greece's DEAD CONGREGATION is just as good as that of DRAWN AND QUARTERED, the Athens trio are most certainly in the same league and, more importantly, understand and convey said feeling convincingly.

Originally released by Singapore's Konqueror Records, underground purveyors of darkness and brutality Enucleation saw fit to re-release a digipack version "Purifying Consecrated Ground". The decision would prove fortuitous, as I wouldn't have gotten to hear it otherwise. As one would surmise from reading the opening paragraph, the EP is dark, dirty, and heavy as hell. More INCANTATION than IMMOLATION, the band's style also boasts the type of serpentine riffs made famous by MORBID ANGEL. More than just murk 'n' churn though, "Purifying Consecrated Ground" stands apart from the failures of disingenuous imitators by putting work into the song structures. Varying tempos that run from the plodding and doomy to fast and vicious (with moments that approach raw black metal),there is plenty of meat on the bone here. The vocals of lead guitarist "A" are very much in the Herb Burke (DRAWN AND QUARTERED) vein of deep and bellowing, although Burke's are slightly more intelligible. A pretty ghoulish combination, if I do say so myself.

Bottom line? "Purifying Consecrated Ground" will undoubtedly appeal to fans of the style. While I didn't listen with dropped-jaw amazement, I found it to be quite good; piquing my curiosity about the trio's full-length, "Graves of the Archangels", on Nuclear War Now!