Hour of Penance – Sedition (2012)

With a massive and destructive sound, today we have Hour of Penance and their latest release “Sedition”. Waiving the Technical Brutal Death Metal flag, Hour of Penance delivers high intensity brutal music with a nice technical edge that puts them over their closest competition. While not as technical as Obscura, Decrepit Birth, and similar band, this release compensates with intense drumming and a more brutal feel to the music.

After the opening instrumental, the band delivers its first punch with “Enlightened Submission”, a very brutal and crushing opening song. The growls are as deep and brutal as you can get, but the massive drumming is what immediately sticks out. “Decimate the Ancestry of the Only God” and “Fall of the Servants” keep pummeling your ears with insane levels of brutality, thanks to the hellish vocals and powerful riffs that accompany the extreme drumming.

If you managed to make it alive till now, “Ascension” will surely blow you away with its excellent intro section. Here is where you can immediately comprehend the sheer power behind this band’s sound, the guitars are punishing, the drumming is just over the top and the overall brutality of this song is just amazing. This track immediately reminded us of bands like Zyklon, The Wretched End, and such, but with an extra level of brutality.

Keeping the pace and extremeness to an all-time high, “The Cannibal Gods”, “Sedition Through Scorn”, and “Deprave To Redeem”, keep highlighting Simone Piras ability behind the drum kit, Giulio Moschini and Paolo Pieri masterful riffing skills, and the well-crafted bass guitar track courtesy of Silvano Leone. The album never gets dull due to the excellent songwriting behind the songs, making them each be very unique and devastating. As we mentioned, Hour of Penance does not have the technical intricacies of bands like Obscura and such, but they are more concerned about having stuff sound more brutal and massive.

The closing anthem “Blind Obedience” nicely brings this release to a screeching halt and makes you immediately reach for the play button again. When it comes to brutality with a certain level of technicality, Hour of Penance sets the standard for any other band in the genre. With nine crushing tracks, “Sedition” is so far the most brutal (and intelligible) album of 2012, so go ahead and buy it and prepare to be blown away.

Release: April 6th, 2012

Country: Italy