Toughness - The Prophetic Dawn

TOUGHNESS - The Prophetic Dawn (GODZ OV WAR - CD 2022)

Another new band has recently risen from the abyss of Polish death metal, serving us their first full album titled „The Prophetic Dawn”. I'm not sure what all these prophecies are about (band's demo was called simply "Prophecy", by the way...), but I am sure it won't be predicting mankind bright, happy days. At least this is how such music can make you feel, with its savage and brutal sound embraced in dark, gloomy atmosphere. Don't you worry, though, I am sure that every death metal maniac will welcome these "prophecies" with joy, because the music from Toughness sounds pretty awesome, I dare to say. 

After the first listen, Toughness didn't really impress me, I felt that their square simple sometimes, primeval riffage is not quite as good and the whole album is just a bit boring. Hmm, obviously I spent few more hours with „The Prophetic Dawn” before doing this review and every next listen was working in advantage for the band. It's nothing extraordinary nor the most impressive of all death metal I heard this year, but a solid and worthy album for sure. What I like about Toughness is that their music has a nice combination of the old school death metal, which certainly lurks deep into the Finnish scene (Demilich comes often in comparisons, but damn, what about such Funebre?), but also takes full grasps of influence from such Incantation?! And it also comes close to some young American bands, such as Ossuarium, Tomb Mold, Coffin Rot, Sewercide, Fetid and such. 

I am not sure obviously, if Toughness fellas have any idea about bands I just mentioned, but their morbid riffage, harsh, brutal sound and slow, crushing tempo is up my street and comes close to bands I mentioned. Blasts do appear as well, but they're few and rather short, this is not Krisiun, you know?! Songwriting and arrangements can still feel a bit sloppy sometimes, other time the music can sound a bit chaotic (“Other Insalubrious Beings”), especially with this harsh production. But it has its charm. Besides, you need to notice that Toughness tries sometimes to come out of the usual death metal box with some almost progressive parts, broken rhythms or with the whole bad ass bass guitar work, which definitely stands out. So, it can sound a bit more unique here and there and maybe this is why „The Prophetic Dawn” required few more spins before I could give it an opinion. Now I can say that this is a very promising band. 

Verdict: 70/100