By: Richard Maw
Album Type: Full Length
Album Type: Full Length
“The Nine Choirs” CD//CS//DD//LP track listing:
1). Cold Devotion
2). And How They Wept for Eternity
3). With This Creature I Return
4). To Gather in its Presence
5). As a Thousand Voices Sing
6). Jealous Messiah
7). Shapeless Sovereign
8). Jungle Rituals
9). Worthless Offering
The Review:
Dallas, Texas -not Florida- this time around for your death metal… This is nine tracks of death metal but with a distinct hardcore vibe. Think Obituary jamming with Nails and Hatebreed with a whole lot of early Morbid Angel thrown in for good measure.
It goes without saying that this is weighty- the mid-tempo sections hit particularly hard across all the tracks. The blasting sections are effective and while opener “Cold Devotion” may run past the six minutes mark with an intro etc… the rest of the album is down to business with three to four minutes of violence each and every time.
There are some serious neck snapping riffs throughout- listen to that head-stomp in “And How They Wept For Eternity”! The Morbid Angel vibes are cranked up for “With This Creature I Return” and from there, well, there is no let up. Old school DM vibes abound in “As a Thousand Voices Sing”- it has that ‘out of control’ riffage that Deicide did so well.
As the album plays out, the old school squeals and tempo changes of Trey et al are in full effect and with “Jealous Messiah” and “Shapeless Sovereign” bringing the noise, the album turns out to be anything but a “Worthless Offering”.
I’d pick “To Gather In Its Presence” as a stand out as it has that perfect headbanging tempo going for it, but there is something to enjoy on every track here. Recommended for fans of all mentioned bands.
“The Nine Choirs” is available HERE
