Sunday, 22 September 2013

Embalmed Souls - The Kingdom of Fake Promises

 
EMBALMED SOULS - The Kingdom of Fake Promises (Self financed demo CD 2012)
Damn it… First time I’ve heard about Embalmed Souls was when I got their “Become Vengeance, Become Wrath” demo tape from someone around 2000/2001… soooo many years ago! I haven’t got this tape anymore and to be honest I don’t think I even liked it too much back then, anyway I must say that I was really surprised, when I’ve read a long and in depth interview with the band in Crypts of Eternity zine #V, where not only I have been reminded about Embalmed Souls, but also this article presented me their long history, which dates back to the early 90’s. Embalmed Souls is still around and during these two decades of their existence they released about eight demos, but not a full length album yet! Some may suggest that this lack of full album is caused by the low quality of their music, that it is not good enough, but no! This is certainly not the reason! The band is so dedicated to the underground, to the values of it that they took another path than most of the bands, which don’t even do demos anymore, but want to release a full length album asap and become rock stars (ha!). I contacted the band and one day I received from them their newest demo “The Kingdom of Fake Promises” from 2012 and I certainly am glad that once again I can listen to the music of these Brazilians. They proved to be quality band and I can only now guess why the hell they remain so little known nowadays… Anyway, please read what I have to say about “The Kingdom of Fake Promises” and purchase the demo from the band, support them and join the madness!
I won’t be praising Embalmed Souls for releasing the best death metal demo ever. No, I won’t because I do actually find there some minor faults, which make it less exciting to me than some other death metal stuff from the recent years. My minor complain would probably be the fact that the whole material from the demo is maybe too slow, sometimes also too melodic and with 35 minutes on the clock it becomes maybe slightly monotonous here and there. I don’t wanna say boring, because it isn’t boring, definitely not! But maybe because quite a lot of these songs have been played in slower / mid tempos and with such production, it may feel a little like “The Kingdom of Fake Promises” lacks a bit of sheer aggression and violence; it isn’t as powerful as it should be (actually even in the faster parts the music doesn’t sound that powerful and brutal, which is quite weird… and I don’t know whether it is due to the production or maybe Embalmed Souls simply plays more gloomy style of death metal?). But this is my only – still very minor – complain, as if you really listen to the demo deeply and carefully then you’ll hear some excellent riffs, some killer ideas and great playing from Embalmed Souls.
The work of both guitarists is simply awesome. Listen to these riffs, melodies, leads which they play… certainly it is a work of experienced and talented musicians. Style wise this isn’t typical Brazilian stuff – if by Brazilian death metal you think of Krisiun, Rebaelliun, Abhorrence and Nephasth… “The Kingdom of Fake Promises” reminds me rather such bands as The Chasm and Infinitum Obscure, I’ve also read some comparisons to Heanhunter DC, but I am not too familiar with the music of the last of these bands, so I won’t comment that. Who cares anyway? The music here on “The Kingdom of Fake Promises” concentrates strongly on the dark, gloomy atmosphere, what is also one of the most important aspects of Embalmed Souls’ music, so I can guarantee a lot of great impressions. So, even if the demo would sound better if had heavier and maybe more uncompromising and powerful sound / style and it took me few listens before I got fully convinced, it finally intrigued me totally, so I can only worship the band for composing such an interesting piece of death metal. “The Kingdom of Fake Promises” has been released in really cool way, packed in unusual A5 size booklet, so the visual side of the demo is also really nice… again I can only recommend this band to all underground death freaks.
Standout tracks: “Expecting for the Sign”, “Blasphemic and Bizarre Visions”
Final rate: 70/100

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