Cenotaph - Empire of Sin

CENOTAPH - Empire of Sin (DARK OMENS Productions CD 2018)

Recorded in 1993, "Empire of Sin" was Cenotaph's second and last demo. Some time later the band split up, which is a shame, because they were a very promising band and it seemed like they would achieve at least the same status as Damnation. Sadly, their history ended. But now, 25 years later Dark Omens Productions took a chance and exhumed this ancient piece of obscure death metal and pressed it on CD. Fantastic idea, in my opinion! This way another great demo is saved from oblivion and many people, who never had a chance to hear it - or their old tape has been lost or damaged long time ago, like mine was - could listen to it in a very good quality. 

Obviously you have to remember that the production of "Empire of Sin" is very raw and brutal, so do not expect a good quality in sense of perfectly polished, powerful production and fancy, spotless playing. The sound is rather typical for many old Polish death metal demos and it could have been better, sure. The production and the music have quite primitive, savage feel, but that's the whole charm of these old demos. And besides, raw, noisy sound doesn't affect these songs in a negative way. This is great obscure, yet brutal and vicious, evil sounding death metal, which did not avoid diversity in the music. There are faster, ferocious songs like “Necrophobic”, but also slower tracks like “The Birth of a New God”, with a doomy riff and violin, what obviously remind me the very early, most sinister sounding My Dying Bride a little. For even bigger diversity, every second song is a short instrumental piece, with acoustics or violin like “Requiem Aeternam”. Despite the whole archaic feel of “Empire of Sin”, I think it was a great pleasure to listen to this demo, again after all these years. 

CD comes with a booklet, where you’ll find all sort of information, photos, flyers, etc from Cenotaph’s past, so everything’s there as it should. A recommended release, in my opinion! 

Standout tracks: “Occultic Certificate”, “The Birth of a New God” 

Verdict: 70/100