Hereza - I Become Death

HEREZA - I Become Death (GODZ OV WAR Productions CD 2017)

Croatia is not a country, which would be filled with known and respected metal bands. I sincerely cannot think of any names of recommendable acts from there. So, here's one, which is finally putting this country on the map - Hereza. "I Become Death" is their second album, recently released through Godz ov War Productions. I have no idea what was their debut CD like, but this newest effort is pretty damn cool, in my opinion. 

All in all Hereza performs death metal that is highly infected with the Swedish sound. They have the Swedish groove, the Swedish brutality and feeling, a couple of songs provide also the melody that is so characteristic for the Scandinavian country... and finally the guitar tone, vocals sound - they all sound like Swedish bands do. Once again then I have to underline that I don't care if Hereza sounds unoriginal and for some people it's laughable that a band from Croatia sounds like Swedish bands. If the music is great and the listening experience is only positive, why I would bother about anything else? Why would it matter? From the very first seconds of "I Become Death" Hereza offers sheer aggression, ferociousness and death metal malignancy. Quite simplistic, but insanely powerful and vicious music, straight forward type of playing, which will rip your fuckin guts out. That simplicity gives more groove and aggressive character, but that's what I like about Hereza. Even when they come up with more melodic death metal in "Full Moon Slaughter", it still sounds like Hereza was going to damage not only your neck, but also hearing - cause you will play this CD loud and you will bang your skull like crazy! Such "Neplodna jama" and "Pošast" has almost punkish / crusty vibe, but when it's played the punching death metal way, it always sounds incredibly awesome.  

Yeah, definitely Hereza came up with pretty good album and I enjoyed listening to it, even if I cannot say that it's the best release ever. If you're into Unleashed, Dismember, Entombed and Bombs of Hades plus a handful of similar new bands, then Hereza is for you. For me it was a nice surprise, because I didn't think that Croatian band could be that good... From the first spin I got convinced that it's better than I would ever imagine, soooo... It may not the most spectacular release in this style of death metal, but it's good enough for my taste. 

Standout tracks: "In the Name of God", "Tombcrawler", "I Become Death" 

Final rate: 70/100