DAEMONIAC are an Italian band formed in 2013 and this is their debut full-length. These guys play a very brutal Death Metal that owes much (or nearly everything, really) to the scene that was spawned in Sweden in the early nineties. I was perhaps most of all reminded of VOMITORY in their intense barrage of ear-raping flak. Sure, there are some moments of calm, such as the cinematographic and eerie piano intro to ‘Procreation Of Hatred’ or the slower Death / Doom entrance of ‘Cursed Hecatomb’, but these are fleeting moments trapped inside a sonic massacre, a Metal war raging around you. Truth is DAEMONIAC may have very little originality to be found, but they do very well what they do. Even the distortion and general production is an obvious reproduction of their Swedish masters, with aggressive drumming, cavernous vocals (often without any discernible utterances for anyone lacking a lyric sheet) and very heavy downtuned guitars, including fine riffs (but I did miss soloing!). They even end the album with ‘Cremation’, a MACRODEX cover back from 1990 whose Death Metal identity is fully upheld in DAEMONIAC’s version, very close to the original but with a modern quality production. The cover artwork was drawn by none other than Chris Moyen, a name strongly associated with Black and Death Metal underground releases since the old days. It depicts a kind of angel-demon (goes with the band name), something that Moyen must be very used to drawing, and in fact their lyrics are very much connected to blasphemy and general anti-Christian themes. So, to sum it up, if you are a maniac for VOMITORY, DISMEMBER and the likes, this is right up your alley. Check it out at: www.facebook.com/daemoniac666, www.xtreemmusic.com