The combination of a Polish band and a Japanese label is certainly an uneasy one, as I doubt this album is available on many distribution lists. A shame really, as “Old Death’s Lair” deserves a large exposure, mainly due to its freshness and total originality. The THRONEUM’s music could disconcert at first, but believe me this CD is worth to be listened to again and again! THRONEUM is a three piece from Poland dedicated to a raw form of Death Metal with a sort of old school vibe in it (hence the album title I guess). The work vocally wise is phenomenal, vocalist Marek delivers his lyrics in an hallucinate manner, a kind of Paul Speckmann on acid. Of course, the voice is deepened by a vintage reverb effect, like in the “Mental Funeral” album by AUTOPSY. And now that I think of it, THRONEUM can certainly claim AUTOPSY as a major influence, because of the sick atmosphere they are capable to build in their tracks. The drum rhythms stay unpredictable, lot of weird changes are on offer here, so THRONEUM spare us the scourge of monotony, thanx a lot to them! The production is powerful while cavernous (if you now what I mean) reinforcing the feeling that “Old Death’s Lair” could have been recorded in 1989. But the primitive (yet, I repeat, absolutely excellent) sound quality is coupled with a lot of technical elements, don’t expect the same linearity as in “Scream Bloody Gore” or “From Beyond”. And here lies the main THRONEUM interest: keeping the ancient spirit alive while proposing never heard before arrangements and weird song structures. What pleases me also is the strong DEATH STRIKE flavour of some of the tracks (like ‘Black Thrash Till Death’ for instance, got the message?) In a time of utter mediocrity erected as quality, THRONEUM bring the shining proof that all is not lost and that some artists still exist to unleash interesting music. So, save your money, don’t support bands everybody worship without knowing why, and make the effort to look after this little gem. Try these contacts to get more info: www.weirdtruth.jp, www.geocities.com/throneum. And anyway, buy this!