DEAD CONGREGATION Graves of Archangels CD

Culled from the darkest corridors of abyssic ruins comes the first full length release by Greek death metal demons, Dead Congregation. Not only does this album live up to the high expectations that were set for this band following the release of their excellent 2005 mini album, Putrefying Consecrated Ground, this album sets a new standard for metal in general. Originally having released a handful of recordings under the name, Nuclear Winter, Dead Congregation have since evolved into one of the most innovative and powerful bands in the underground. Refusing to be confined to a narrow conception of death metal, Dead Congregation delve into obscure recesses to conjure up a sound that is unique and yet still adheres to the fundamental pillars of death metal songwriting. While Dead Congregation draw most heavily on brooding and evil North American and Finnish style death metal such as Immolation, Demigod, and Incantation, they also incorporate other extraneous influences to produce a sound that cannot be directly attributed to any of their predecessors. Listen, for instance, to the monumental last track in which they deftly and subtly employ elements of 1990's Swedish black metal to accentuate the climax of the album. With this album, Dead Congregation have taken chances by experimenting somewhat with the death metal format. However, this album is not an "experimental" metal album. Dead Congregation do not besmirch the history of death metal with any sort of pretentious artistic vision. Instead they find themselves merely tweaking the formula just enough to produce novel results. Ultimately, Graves of the Archangels is nearly unrivaled by any death metal album released in the past decade and few bands in the history of metal have ever produced such a profound combination of technical agility and emotional depth. Listening to this album it is clear that its creation provided a cathartic channel for the release of an obscure malevolence and darkness that possesses the members of Dead Congregation. - Enucleation



"Deriving a massive and undeniable influence from Incantation's classic 'Onward to Golgotha', Purifying Consecrated Ground, released in 2005, was a short EP, which I described elsewhere as sounding like the band was possessed by the devil during its recording. The EP however, did have its limitations. As good as it was, it wasn't much more than a nicer-produced early Incantation EP. Graves of the Archangels, while still worshipping early Incantation, adds a bit more uniqueness to Dead Congregation's sound, and is a real improvement on what was already a great EP in Purifying Consecrated Ground. The majestic introduction, Martyrdoom, resonates evilness and is an ominous pre-cursor for what is to come.

Aside from Incantation, we can see a bit of Morbid Angel in here as well as some doom and black metal influence, although you'd stop short of calling it Death/Doom or Blackened Death. It's chaotic and heavy, an apocalyptic atmosphere dominating the music throughout. Thankfully there is minimal use of blast-beats and the music slows down and speeds up at exactly the right places. Dead Congregation avoid the trap of guitar wankery that many death metal bands these days fall into and combine simplistic riffs with dissonant, tremolo picked melodies, the melodies showing just about the strongest black metal influence.

The vocals have not evolved since Purifying Consecrated Ground and they haven't needed to. They're still guttural growls and while they aren't much more than standard, anything else would seem out of place with the music. Satanism is still the main lyrical theme, along the lines of Incantation, Imprecation and Blaspherion and avoiding the kind of gimmicks that Deicide have popularised.

I'm yet to hear a better album from 2008 than Graves of the Archangels. It brings together all the great things about death metal: heaviness, brutality, atmosphere, riffage and avoids all the bad things: guitar wankery, gimmicks, and trying to be too fast. I can't imagine where Dead Congregation will go from here, although it seems they'll be forced to stray from their still-obvious Incantation worship, which could be a good thing and could be a bad thing. If Satanic death metal is your thing, and I don't mean 'I rape angels and burnt an upside-down cross into my forehead' Satanic death metal, Dead Congregation is for you. If you prefer to hear some weird time signature that changes every bar for the sake of it while the guitarist melts his fingers on the fretboard, you probably won't like Dead Congregation. If I lost this CD, I'd definitely buy it again. If it got re-released next week with one 30-second bonus track, I'd probably buy it again." - rateyourmusic.com