ECHELON
Open Wide The Adamantine Gates
(Iron, Blood And Death Corporation)
39:34min

Started as a side-project, ECHELON return with album number three. Once again, Mr. Johansson gets joined by vocal master Dave Ingram so no wonder that the opener ‘Undefiled Wisdom’ starts pretty strong. Groovy uptempo old school Death Metal and the oustanding vocals of Dave Ingram are really nailing it. But also the groovy and also melodic guitars are pretty enjoyable. The title track ‘Open Wide The Adamantine Gates’ even is a bit faster with a Swedish touch and paired with the British vocals they are definitely kicking some serious ass. I missed some ideas on the last release, but this time they really managed to put together some really good ideas and the bass-lines also really kick it. ‘Soul Dealer’ is the highlight of the album and offers some pretty fine and memorable melodies paired with excellent drumming and again brilliant vocal work. ‘Of Witches And Wenches’ reminds me a bit of mighty VADER, but a bit more melodic and thrashy at the end. ‘The Sins Of The Sycophants’ is a midtempo track again, solid but not outstanding, while ‘Into The Trapezoid’ offers some really fine melodic Swedish Death Metal in the vein of DESULTORY paired with some old AT THE GATES in it. ‘In The Flesh’ and ‘Diaboli Vindictam’ are melodic again before ‘Leviathan’ offers some solid Death’n’Roll and it grooves as hell. The intrumental ‘Temporal Closure’ closes the album with some spoken phrases before the obligatory fourty minutes are over. All in all a pretty solid album and definitely better than the predecessor. Still like everybody on this planet, I am astonished how many solid tracks Rogga spreads out and he strictly follows his mission to save the good old Death Metal scene. Worth to listen to. More ECHELON information can be found here: www.facebook.com/echelonofficial, label contact: www.facebook.com/ibdc666

Michael Kujawska

Michael Kujawska

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