There are always people who ask how one can celebrate this old school Death Metal thing so much. It sounds always pretty much the same and is still sort of entertaining, but you can not really write a big innovation hymn in the guest book forty years after its creation. The answer is: yes! You might have a point there. But this is not what matters. In our case LEPER COLONY are not reinventing the wheel at all. The listener quickly feels at home in a kind of sound that was characteristic in the early days of that genre: Punk and fast Thrash Metal rhythms heavily influenced by the old POSSESSED and SLAYER records are meeting low-tuned guitars with all the familiar effect pedals, thundering drums and all that stuff. And they meet Marc Grewe’s growl vocals, which in case of LEPER COLONY make the difference. Associations with old MORGOTH, ENTOMBED, DEATH and the likes immediately comes to mind. While songs like ‘Master’s Voice’, ‘Flesh To Rot To Ashes’ or ‘Realm Of Madness’ are raging in typical nineties Death Metal style, leaving no stone unturned, songs like ‘Facing The Faceless’ and ‘The Age Of Insanity’ – which perfectly sums up nowadays’ spirit of the age in the song title – roll over the listener with a lot of power and melody. Also we have many moments within these songs where the band drops into midtempo, even dares to flirt with Doom Death riffing and is roared forward step by step by Marc’s voice, as for example in the middle section of ‘Those Of The Morbid Inclination’. A great number. On the other hand, the final track on the record, ‘A Story In Red’, is completely out of the ordinary. Where Doom, Groove sound and an undeniable Rock’n’Roll element meet Marc Grewe like you’ve never heard him before… The use of melodies runs through the entire record, and the inbetween guitar interludes lend a certain lightness to the heavy and dragging sound. Bonus point in the end: even with Rogga Johanson in the band line-up, the sound is pleasantly un-Swedish. An album that everyone into rough Death Metal should have heard! www.facebook.com/lepercolonyband, www.facebook.com/testimonyrecords