DAWN OF RETALIATION – Apex

Norwegian death metallers Dawn of Retaliation have been around for 12 years but have thus far been able to only pitch a demo, an ep and this full length that feels like an ep plus no recording contract. These days, few bands are able to get signed what with old bands struggling to stay on labels’ roster for variety of reasons I won’t get into. Dawn wraps eerie spacey gorgeous melodies around syncopated Meshuggah meets Fear Factory rhythms in the vein of Decrepit Birth or even Misery Signals to an intelligent lyrical anti religious rant (always a plus to this reviewer) but with a crushing heaviness the likes of which I have rarely heard. Try the opener "Path To Execration" on for size, section like cannons, warring fast blastbeat/double bass "feet" and that brutal RIFF at  4:40 that will give you a concussion right in your Beats, Retaliation serving the best right out of the gate. As the album progresses, the song structures and guitarwork recalls Psychroptic and Mithras but whereas the opener was a pulverizing steamroller, Apperception adds almost thrashy speed to it, in fact, becoming downright thrash on another standout "Apex I – Depuration" on top off black metal pace wrapped in a still death metal convention, an excellent merger of three genres, too bad it’s only 2+ minutes. The closer is more of the same with no surprises, eerie spacey guitar melodies layered over the marching rhythm, but for its almost 10 min it needs to have more change of pace, variety, twists and turns, although that esoteric ending is very well done. In the end, the unbelievable weight of the opener, the creativity of the background melody and the excellent production with attention to detail is what stands out the most from this 6 track affair

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