Banished From Inferno - Minotaur

 

BANISHED FROM INFERNO - Minotaur (METAL INQUISITION - CD 2011)

I’m familiar with Banished From Inferno already for some time, as there was time, when I was digging through every project, which Rogga Johansson has contributed in and this master of guttural vocals and guitar death metal slaughter has been involved in Banished From Inferno’s self titled debut MCD back in 2008, but to be honest, I didn’t like this material so much. Anyway, Rogga is not in the band anymore, but when I thought that Banished From Inferno has split up, I’ve found the news about the release of “Minotaur”, which is the debut full length album of the band. At the present the line up consist of the Spanish metalheads only (did I mention that only Rogga was Swedish while the rest of the musicians were from Spain? No? Ok, I do so now then…) and I know some of the bands they’re also involved like Godus, Machetazo, Human Mincer, Scent of Death or Balmog – they’re all fine underground black, death or grind core bands. But after the boring debut MCD I didn’t expect much from “Minotaur”, luckily then Banished From Inferno proved me wrong, as the album is really cool.

Musically “Minotaur” did not surprise me so much; it is exactly as I thought it will be. Banished From Inferno slaughters the old school Swedish death metal, but of course that won’t surprise or make anyone crazy anymore, as there are dozens of such bands at the time (already in Spain we have also Graveyard, Unconsecrated, Mass Burial and Morbid Flesh!) and such music became just too explored recently. But that doesn’t mean that Banished From Inferno sucks, because personally I actually liked “Minotaur”. Who cares if the music isn’t much original or whatever, as long as it kicks ass? Those Spaniards aren’t pussies, they know what to do to kill with the sound and luckily they managed to compose some decent, catchy death metal tunes, which instantly force into the maniacal headbanging and fist throwing. And I cannot say anything bad about it. I like the groove and rhythmic these songs have, the dynamics of these songs, that they’re sometimes fast, but often rather mid paced… in the final parts it even gets more harmonious and melodic, especially in „Twilight Grotesque” and the epic „Sorrows of the Earth”, which ends the album – these two tracks will catch your attention with more atmospheric approach (and the use of keyboards!). Anyway, the whole music of Banished From Inferno can remind you the likes of Facebreaker, Ribspreader, Intestinal, Interment, plus it also reminds me a lot some of the newer things, which Kam Lee does, like The Grotesquery and The Skeletal, which is also very cool. Banished From Inferno is really cool, if you ask me, I liked “Minotaur” quite much, even the closing cover of Hellhammer, which appears after a short silence was a real surprise (especially that the booklet doesn’t mention “Messiah” in the tracklist). Spaniards played this song in more epic and almost bombastic way, with keyboards, which underline the atmosphere of it, so it does sounds just damn cool.

Standout tracks: "Praise the Rotten Dead", "Twilight Grotesque", "Minotaur"

Final rate: 75/100