Full – length album (Hellthrasher Productions, June 30th 2013)
Line – up (2009): Stefan Nordstrom – guitar/vocals;
Joakim Rudemyr – guitar/vocals;
Jonas Bergkvist – bass/vocals;
Victor Parri – drums.
Location: Stockholm/Sollentuna (Sweden
Better song of the album:
“Age of Annihilation”, mega – violent and mysterious at the same time.
Better feature of the band:
Its variety through violence and a good dose of technique.
Ultimately, the Polish label Hellthrasher Productions has released many masterpieces of the so – called “new wave of old – school death metal” like the immense “Through the Eternal Damnation” of the Turkish Engulfed or “Morbid Priest of Supreme Blasphemy” of the Polish Kingdom
First of all, I need to say that Desolator started as a doom/death metal band, this thing is audible especially during the first part of the album (for example, listen to “Feeding Frenzy”). For the rest, their music is now an ancient death metal with some thrashy moments like the Swedish school wants. In addition, their assault is always various and rich of many surprises during the listening, preferring a violent approach full of tempo shifts, that sometimes can be so frequent to closes to the more technical death metal (the introduction of “Age of Annihilation” is a good example for that), while the riffing is often well – elaborated. So, don’t except real melodies but only dark and/or strange melodies so to inject a good sense of atmosphere, like in “Age of Annihilation”, thanks to a lead guitar that at times plays short and mad solos. All the music is played, as I wrote before, with violence preferring the two - beats than the blast – beats but, when these ones are present, crushes again and again in a way very close to the Tiamat of “Sumerian Cry”.
The vocals are dominated principally by hoarse growls, accompanied both by diabolic screams (that shoots all their hate generally along with the main vocals) and by low and frightful growls. This alternation between these vocals’ styles emerges above all in “Feeding Frenzy” and “Impaled”. Besides this, the vocal lines are excellent, also because they are always in the right place into the right moment, this is a rare thing to find in many bands.
But the Desolator know how to write the songs with fluidity and intensity. In fact, the songs’ structure is dynamic and also free enough from many and particular sequences, these ones are used only to not lose the threat of the music, especially as regards tracks like “Bludgeoned, Beaten and Berated”. The band uses very well the breaks, so to intensify the entire music to the top and to create some ferocious restarts, maybe changing suddenly the pace from a very slow doom to destructive ultra – blast beats (at this time, listen the memorable “Mass Human Pyre”, that is really shocking!). But I mustn’t forget the long introductions of some songs of the first part of the album (especially the aforementioned “Mass Human Pyre”, that is curiously very close to the ‘80s heavy metal as regard its introduction) and the skills of the drummer, able to create some good variations so to help the other instruments also through complex patterns.
I liked very much the production of “Unearthly Monument
In brief, “Unearthly Monument” is a Mister – debut album, it has everything, also a mid – tempo song like “Second Killing of Christ”, some minimalist keyboards (“Age of Annihilation” and the atmospheric intro of “Antimortem Autopsy” where it reminds to me at times the sad soundtrack of the World War II movie titled “Operation Daybreak”, released in 1975 – wow, what a paragon, don’t you think?) and some acoustic guitars into the intro and the outro. The only flaw of this album is its length, but the Desolator are succeeded to diversify the various song in a very good way, showing a very good technique in every second. Now, I believe I said everything about the album, so do you a favour buying it without boundaries, okay?
Vote: 86
Flavio “Claustrofobia” Adducci
Tracklist:
1 – Thy Flesh Consumed/ 2 – Desolated/ 3 – Gravefeast/ 4 – Mass Human Pyre/ 5 – Infernal Gathering/ 6 – Feeding Frenzy/ 7 – The Triumph of Death/ 8 – Bludgeoned, Beaten and Berated/ 9 – Second Killing of Christ/ 10 – Impaled/ 11 – Age of Annihilation/ 12 – Antimortem Autopsy
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Official site:
http://desolator.info.se/
