Formed back in 1989 Swedish oooooold school Black / Thrashers DAMNATION did not manage to release anything except demos until 2004. Now the band’s first full-length is ready to strike and though it turns out to be a total worship of BATHORY, VULCANO, old SAMAEL, SEXTHRASH, DARKTHRONE and old MAYHEM it undoubtedly has its qualities! The morbid charm and timelessly ancient sounding production, the members of ENTOMBED, MERCILESS and UNANIMATED hiding behind this band definitely did a good job in summoning the flair and unique fascination of the aforementioned bands. Varying between thrashing assaults and dark, heavy mid-tempo passages (e.g. in ‘Night Eternal’ or the titletrack) plus adding some typical Swedish Black Metal keeps the album musically quite interesting and driving. Yet I’m not sure what’s the motivation behind this: is it out of true dedication to the “good ol’ days”? Is it just for fun? Are the “hardrockers” of ENTOMBED getting into “real Metal” again? Will DAMNATION be releasing more stuff in the future? “Destructo Evangelia” is certainly a convincing piece of music, but I’m not sure if the reason behind all this is one I can sympathise with or not. Maybe the band itself will clear this up once in a while… If you don’t think it’s too lame to do another of those old school worships DAMNATION’s album might really be something for you, it has the right sound, the spirit, variation and something unexplainable that caused me liking it better the more I listened to it. Enjoy this ride into the dark past… www.threeman.net