Whereas most US Death Metal bands tend to go for the blasting, utterly brutal direction INFERNAL LEGION’s second album (their debut on Moribund, “Angelicide” was self released in 2001) represents a fascinating and absolutely convincing counterpoint. Blending older MORBID ANGEL (“Blessed Are The Sick”, “Covenant” phase) with an individual sense of melodics, moods and diverse tempos INFERNAL LEGION offer heavy, dark, epic and surprisingly atmospheric Death Metal without sounding cheesy, but they succeed to remain true to the old school! An album such as this is pretty unusual today, it’s dark, it’s evil, it’s capturing and driving, despite the fact there is not a small amount of doomy or mid-tempo passages, e.g. in ‘Forest Of The Diseased’ on it. Also, opening with a really cool, yet simplistic instrumental that ends with chiming church bells and a cool bass line, is something different. As a fan of satanic or at least blasphemous lyrics and imagery INFERNAL LEGION have another big plus for me, because with the titletrack or songs like ‘Inverted Crucifix’, ‘Christian Genocide’ they totally go into that direction. Vocal-wise mostly traditional growls emerge Josh Smith’s throat, but there are some additional screams by guitarist Doug Stern as well. Musically an interesting variety of up-tempo passages, double-bass driven mid-tempo and really doomy sections is offered here, the songwriting is inventive and surprising. Who associates Death Metal only with speed might be wrong if he chooses to check this band out, but to me “Your Prayers Mean Nothing” is one of the most fresh sounding albums I heard in some time and it clearly shows that Death Metal can have depth, a gripping atmosphere and does not always has to emphasize brutality. “Your Prayers Mean Nothing” is like a Death Metal album with Black Metal moods and intensity, without sounding again like Swedish Black / Death, but has its own identity and high quality to offer. The production is powerful and not too clean, the layout unspectacular but effective and overall this is a damn good album that has the little something at least I’m always looking for. On www.infernallegion.com you find some MP3s (also the entire “Angelicide” album for free download! – Frank), on www.moribundcult.com you’ll find all required information regarding the label…