Kingdom - Unholy Graveyard

KINGDOM - Unholy Graveyard (TIME BEFORE THE TIME - CD 2008)

Kingdom… I guess not many of you will know this Polish death metal band, unless you already are familiar with their second album – “Morbid Priest of Supreme Blasphemy” - which Hellthrasher Productions has unleashed this year and with which the band finally got some decent promotion. With the debut CD – “Unholy Graveyard”, released by Time Before Time Records in 2008 – the promotion was very limited and thus only a bunch of maniacs have heard it and this band and most of them were from Poland anyway. Even nowadays this CD, limited to barely 750 copies, is quite hard to get, so if you have never heard it before – but you already know “Morbid Priest of Supreme Blasphemy” – now you can read some words about it and find out what was the debut like.

The music on “Unholy Graveyard” is quite diverse, I must admit, and it contains few different death metal attributes spread throughout its ten songs. For example “Riot in Heaven”, which opens the CD, is pretty fast and technical outburst of the brutal death metal… Really, some riffage in this track are fairly technical, what has surprised me a bit, as I expected something more old styled and archaic. “Battle Eternal” continues in similar vein, again it is very intense and crushing, massive piece of music. But it is the third song, “Crown of Thorns”, which caught my attention most so far, with its slower pace, massive, heavy riffage and obscure atmosphere. It really reminds me Incantation… great song, really. And “Devil’s Ritual” turned out to be a real bulldozer, which can remind me some early Angel Corpse works… This song is just colossal, has great fast tempo and riffing, some killer vocals and arrangements – for sure this is one of the best moments of the album. “Transumanar” is another crushing monolith, which will complete the destruction, in case you still have some bones left unbroken.

And I could go and go with all ten tracks of “Unholy Graveyard”, but I guess there’s no reason for that, as most of them would require a similar description. There are, to be honest, some better and some less killer fragments on “Unholy Graveyard”; sometimes the songwriting seems to be a bit too simple and typical and the riffage not always can be that totally exceptional and effective. Luckily there aren’t too many of them and most of the album is just solid and good and surely it should be appreciated by all old school death metal freaks out there, who like when their music is fast, obscure, massively heavy and brutal. Don’t hesitate to get it then, if you only manage to find it anywhere…

Standout tracks: “Crown of Thorns”, “Devil’s Ritual”, “Transumanar”

Final rate: 70/100