I have a lot of respect for DAMNATION. Over the past couple of years they never ever jumped on any bandwagon to appeal to a larger crowd. And they are still practicing what they preached from the very beginning, which is nothing but brutal Death Metal. But somehow I was still expecting a little more from this newest offering to be perfectly honest. I never got to hear all of their previous releases, but had high hopes anyway that they would’ve made a big improvement from their debut "Reborn…", which was released way back in 1996 (if I remember correctly). But unfortunately that isn’t the case. To me the band still sounds exactly like they used to back in those days (which normally is a good thing when it comes to the style of music…). But the production still hurts their material pretty badly. It’s not crushing enough, the snare drum too much upfront and annoying (just listen to the beginning of ‘Against My Enemies’) and the guitars are lacking in heaviness and power. The whole album still has this ever-present MORBID ANGEL vibe to it, but there’s no real soul in it. Everything seems to be written too much from sketch, instead of letting the dark and brutal feeling take over. Don’t get me wrong – the band delivered another really skilled release, it’s just that Death Metal needs a little more to convince than just the right technical abilities. Maybe it’s about time that DAMNATION get the opportunity to work together with an experienced Death Metal producer outside of Poland. That could already help them immensely…