I admit that I somehow miss the fact that there is no good “mainstream” Death Metal around anymore. Before cursing me for my opening statement let me first explain myself. I believe that there was a time where some former underground Death Metal bands managed to break the underground barriers only to enter the “mainstream” Metal scene with some killer material. I am referring to bands such as MORBID ANGEL, OBITUARY, PESTILENCE, MORGOTH, CARCASS etc. that became “big names” (without necessarily presenting weak material) and introduced even more people to Death Metal with releases such as “Covenant”, “The End Complete”, “Testimony Of The Ancients”, “Cursed” and “Heartwork” to name a few. Nowadays most contemporary, mainstream Death Metal bands suck big time (to say the least) and those belonging to the old league have either changed their style, disbanded or sound completely uninteresting. MONSTROSITY is one small exception to the above “rule” since they keep on releasing decent, powerful releases and with “Spiritual Apocalypse” prove – to me at least – that they are able to deliver some fine Death Metal to the masses. Overall we are dealing here with some straight-forward Death Metal, mainly delivered in high speeds with loads of blasts (and some breaks) and a couple of great-played / sounding solos that actually save the album from sounding monotonous. Well if I want to be a bit strict I can reveal that there are some parts that sound a bit “repetitive” still the good guitar-work in the solo-parts improve the situation and the overall quality of the release (the same goes to the killer vocals and the excellent drums). One additional point worth mentioning is that the production sounds really great since the whole album has been recorded in the legendary Morrisound studios. Last but not least they have prepared a great looking cover artwork for this release (contrary to the rather weak covers of their past few releases). To sum it up, if you need a piece of decent contemporary, “mainstream” Death Metal (with both good musicianship and production) then why don’t trust veterans MONSTROSITY for the matter? www.monstrosity.us