When you are a grizzled Metal veteran such as me, you tend to become kinda jaded about things and you look for other aspects to grab you. Be it the sound, the imagery, or even the message the band puts across. Even when I write these reviews, I look for these things and I tend to put auditory viewpoints to you my adoring audience to latch onto and make a sound reference to what I’m hearing. Most of the time the bands I reference are from the early to mid-era of Metal and I hope those newer (and younger) listeners get my reference points. Because let’s face it, 90% of today’s (Metal) music is not breaking boundaries. Now before the hate mail starts pouring in I really do appreciate bands that create and offer music with intensity and emotion. Those musicians that are able to achieve an aura, “a feel” of darkness (or whatever they are portraying) in their music, that is one aspect that draws me into the bands of today and I feel that REQUIEM OF MALEDICTION achieves this in spades. Coming across between DEICIDE, NECROPHOBIC and mid-era BEHEMOTH, you get a good representation of their sound, but they are a bit more darker and primal. I also feel maybe their locale contributes to their sound as well. Even as I listen to this release further I get touches of MAYHEM and ABAZAGORATH as well. So after the grandiose, obligatory intro, ‘Lvceat Luv Vstra’ kicks in and you may well be thinking is this the latest DEICIDE? But after the song progresses more nuances begin to kick in and you begin to hear the greater compositional skills of the band as they bring in more of those aforementioned influences. As the album moves along, I hear more of the NECROPHOBIC influence, but damn… I love the energy and dynamics. You can’t help but enjoy what they do and also the production is top-notch. Granted due to some time constraints I wasn’t able to put this digital file on my greater “shake the heavens” sound system but still on headphones and computer speakers, I was pleased. Clean, clear and dynamic, and for the most part, all instruments come through in the mix. It would be a bit too much for me to go into too much detail about all that grabbed me at different moments, but be it the melodic leads that accentuate the sound, the vocals of Jiangshi, who has a passing similarity to Glen Benton, delivers a multi-faceted vocal approach, but also on the song ‘Om Sri Maha Kali’, he is giving off Attilla (from guess where?) vibes. The material contained here on this release is dark, apocalyptic and basically a grandiose form of chaos… it’s almost beautiful in a way. Also, one of my guilty (I just have to buy this) problems I have is cover art and I must say the art is amazing and fits the grandiose nature of the intro and the instrumental track 9. I dare you to stare at the cover and listen to those tracks and not be affected in some way. Now granted the intro is a bit long and I just want to get to the music, but after multiple listens I began to accept the overall picture of what the band is presenting. This is not a radio-happy one single album type of thing. So yes, forgive my ranting, I can become such a Metal nerd when all the aspects come together. So please take the time to listen and support the band in some way. Stay Metal. www.facebook.com/requiemofmalediction, www.facebook.com/phtisis