Damnation - Reborn...

DAMNATION - Reborn... (WITCHING HOUR Productions - LP 2015)

I think that "Reborn..." is one of my favourite and one of the best and most important Polish death metal albums from the early / mid 90's. Damnation generally were a fantastic band and I always considered them as one of the best acts from the Polish death metal underground, even though they may seem slightly forgotten and underrated. Their music sounded a bit different and wasn't that easy to get into, but that never spoiled the great experience when listening to them.

The album begins with a real fuckin tornado that blows everything with enormous strength. This is "Pagan Prayer", one of the songs, which originally appeared on the second demo "Forbidden Spaces", but Damnation re-recorded them for the debut album. This song is a killer, so damn fast, brutal and sick. With this song, or the second track "The Land of Degradation", you could hear that Damnation had their own style of death metal, with these vicious, brutal riffs, dark, evil aura, the way songs were arranged and even Les' vocals were quite unique. Everything has quite rough and obscure, diabolic feel, and definitely it is not death metal, which you could get into easily. Surprisingly though, you will be able to catch up some more memorable riffs (in the mentioned "Pagan Prayer" for instance), so that definitely will help adopt to the savagery of Damnation music. I like the powerful kick this music gives, I also like that it balances the fast paced, blasting death metal with slower, more heavy stuff. And then such "Maldoror Is Dead" can bring you a very strong reminiscence to Immolation's "Dawn of Possession" LP. So, this band could be one of the most noticeable influences for Damnation, along with the likes of Deicide maybe, but "Reborn..." has enough guts to be considered as a unique and characteristic record. Sometimes it may sound a bit weird, especially in "The Rulling Truth", but you can get used to it. All in all, "Reborn..." is a great record and I am fully happy with its well deserved vinyl edition, which Witching Hour putted out back in 2015.

Standout tracks: "Pagan Prayer", "Time of Prophets", "Maldoror Is Dead"

Verdict: 85/100