Desolator – Unearthly Monument (2013)

Arriving today from Poland’s Hellthrasher Productions we have Desolator and their pummeling old-school Death Metal debut full-length “Unearthly Monument”. Featuring 48 minutes of neck-snapping music, this release caters to all nostalgic fans of the good old days of Death Metal filled with chugging riffs, insane solos, and soul stealing vocals. With a heavy emphasis on catchiness and headbanging moments, this release is quite entertaining for any fan of the genre.

The band immediately steamrolls the listener with crushing tracks like “Thy Flesh Consumed”, “Desolated”, and “Gravefeast”, all of them filled with powerful guitars and tight drumming. If you could mix Grave with Suffocation, Desolator is exactly what would result. The violence keeps rolling with “Mass Human Pyre” and “Infernal Gathering”, two songs that with the combination of vocals provided by three of the band’s members keep things fresh and with different levels of aggression.

The release rolls on with the sickening opening of “Feeding Frenzy”, a very well-paced track that goes back and forth between dark cavernous passages and crushing drumming sections. The band’s knack for diversity is quite enjoyable and on tracks like “The Triumph of Death”, “Bludgeoned, Beaten and Betrayed”, and “Second Killing of Christ”, we have structurally similar songs that have enough quirky elements to make them all sound different.

Before closing this release, we have the pummeling “Age of Annihilation”, the most crushing and hence best song in this release. This track and the last one (“Antimortem Autopsy”) make use of keyboards to give the songs a very atmospheric and chilling vibe. We are quite impressed on how this 48 minute release never got dull or boring, like most DM releases do. This only shows the great deal of experience and songwriting skills behind the members of Desolator. If you want some crushing and yet melodic at times old-school Death Metal release, look no further and pick up a copy of “Unearthly Monument”.

Label: Hellthrasher Productions

Release: June 30th, 2013

Genre: Death Metal

Country: Sweden