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
No comments:
Post a Comment