Empheris / Grotesk - Apocalyptic Radiation

EMPHERIS / GROTESK - Apocalyptic Radiation (Self released CD 2009)

I have in my CD collection already quite few releases of Polish band called Empheris and I have to say that I really like their music. Lately I managed to grab yet another title from their vast discography. This CD is actually quite rare, as it’s been limited to 100 copies only, so I didn’t even think twice and when I saw it’s for sale I putted an offer immediately. It’s a split CD with Grotesk titled “Apocalyptic Radiation”. And damn, it’s another really awesome stuff from Empheris and also a great discovery of Grotesk, who also turned out to be a solid band.

Empheris brings here two songs “The Taste of Defeat” and “Necronautic Raids”. If you’ve heard any other Empheris releases, like “Regain Heaven” or the splits with Warfist and Embrional, then you should know what can you expect from their music. It’s thrashing black metal – catchy and memorable as hell, vicious and aggressive, blasphemous and damn evil! I love their sharp riffs and great fierce vocals of Ad. I like how they sound and how they combine classic metal patterns from heavy and thrash metal into more black metal style. It’s  a bit like Nocturnal Breed, if you wanna a comparison. Anyway, these two tracks are great, especially “Necronautic Raids” and if you liked any other Empheris releases, then this part of the split will be a feast for you as well.

As for Grotesk (who were from Norway)… They do fit musically to Empheris perfectly, because their style of old school metal is very alike, although this time I would maybe compare them to Aura Noir, if that matters at all. They also use a lot of classic metal parts, have a strong old school feeling, but maybe the black metal influence is smaller. The vocals are more classic sounding, sometimes they sound like Aggressor or Apollyon, other time they’re like a bastard child of Cronos and Lemmy. All in all, another really damn awesome tracks and I liked their part of “Apocalyptic Radiation” as well. Such music is so easily to listen to, it’s so catchy and aggressive and it surely will force you to bang your skull! And drink beers! That’s exactly how the metal band should sound like. Great stuff indeed, so I’m very happy that I managed to grab a copy of this very limited CD!

Final rate: 80/100