Incredible! This young bunch seems to consist of five highly talented guys! Not only does PERSECUTION’s self financed debut full length album convince when it comes to the songwriting and technical skills, they even managed to produce the whole record in their own home studio (with impressive results!) and furthermore came up with a highly professional design / packing on their own! There’s tons of so-called established bands / labels out there doing a lot worse than this! The fact that this present line-up is only together for about two years will leave you even more speechless, cause all of the nine songs on this album sound nothing but perfect to me! Musically PERSECUTION quite obviously try to mix various diverse influences into a unique style on their own. This means, the basic core of their material is definitely rooted in raw Death / Thrash Metal, but due to the catchy melodylines, strong arrangements and constant use of keyboards, you will easily find references to the Gothic, mainstream Black or Melodic Death genres as well. Kinda like older AMORPHIS (especially when it comes to the deep growling vocals and partly folky sounding elements) meets IN FLAMES (melodic guitar work), with hints of DREAM THEATER (partly progressive complexity) and DIMMU BORGIR (overall dark atmosphere and aggression) or something like this. I have no idea whether or not they will also be able to fullfill these big expections in a live environment as well, but judging them just by this approximately one hour of music, they are destined to be signed by an established big label, with the possibility for an easy national (and maybe even international) breakthrough! So, all in all not necessarily a band for the average VOICES reader into raw old school stuff, but if you’re open-minded enough and don’t have any problems with good productions and melodies, you should really check these guys out! Contact: www.persecution.de, email: steffen.th@gmx.de