After two demo tapes and a split album, DEUS IGNOTUS’ debut album "Christmation" is released via Forgotten Wisdom Productions. And upon first listen, one can’t deny that Greece has been constantly delivering great Metal bands for decades. There has to be something in the water in Hellas. Their style of music mixes some heavy Death Metal with ultra fast Black Metal riffs sans the shriek vocals; all enshrouded in the good old cryptic atmosphere. Country mates RAVENBLOOD or the Dutch INFINITY could be a good starting point to describe DEUS IGNOTUS sound. But fear no clones, because these Greek guys are far away from copying anybody out there. Production wise, their sound is raw and powerful. The guitars may be a little mushy for my taste, but overall they mix well with the rumbling, yet clean bass guitar tone and the organic drums (a tad lost in the mix depending on the song). The vocals are a highlight here. A hoarse, deep grunt on top of super fast drums and tremolo riffing. Besides the music itself, there is an evil atmosphere looming over "Christmation" that I can only describe as the "Greek factor". After the positive, comes the negative. Even though the longest song is 4:33, after 2 or 3 songs, some variety is missing. I am not expecting a 180 degree turn in DEUS IGNOTUS style, but some variation could help them out, specially cause the slow and / or midpaced parts are too short or they just don’t focus enough on them. But it seems speed becomes a constant just for the sake of it in most of their songs. Maybe the only memorable part comes via the closer ‘Jesus Is The Bullet In My Gun’, a song with a great groove too! Nevertheless, this is a nice surprise and it is definitely recommended! Info here: www.myspace.com/deusignotus, www.forgottenwisdomprod.com