Starting out as a Doom / Death act in 1998 Spanish GATHERING DARKNESS chose to change their style to – surprise, surprise – brutal Death Metal in the SUFFOCATION vein. Anything doomy or atmospheric the band might have had on its demos is gone forever on “Beholders Of The Pain Planet”, the first official full-length for Grotesque Productions. Low growled vocals, furious blasting, crushing slower passages, technical riffing and a muffled, heavy production like on “Effigy Of The Forgotten” by the unchallenged masters of this kind of Death Metal. Obviously this is the band’s biggest problem, despite some good ideas during songs like the closing ‘Time To Suffer’, the slacking power and total lack of individual elements turn the album into a way too conventional representation of this genre. Is any of these guys aware that there are bands like DISAVOWED, INVERACITY, PYAEMIA, DEEDS OF FLESH, KATAPLEXIA, NECROPHAGIST? They altogether have quite some elements of the US-Gods, but crush a band like GATHERING DARKNESS in nothing but a second! As a big fan of this style I don’t have a problem with bands who copy it, but you should do it good and should at least offer some killer songs (like DISAVOWED’s ‘Rhizome’, the entire INVERACITY-hit parade “Circle Of Perversion”) or stun the listener with technically incredible musical ideas like NECROPHAGIST did. “Beholders Of The Pain Planet” is an ordinary, slightly boring brutal Death Metal album which lacks the artistic class and punishing production to make anybody listen up nowadays. To recommend some label-mates instead: go buy the new MELEKTAUS album “Transcendence Through Ethereal Scourge”, which fucking slays!!! Visit the nice www.grotesquemusic.com website and try out the songs in mp3-format you’ll find there…