IMMORTALIS – indicium de mortuis LP splatter

lim. to 250 copies on Black Smoke Splatter vinyl

A dark, fluid and malevolent extreme metal masterpiece!

Welcome to the bizarre world of “Indicium De Mortuis” by Immortalis, a record where nothing is what it seems. This is a Death Metal album that channels the spirit of Possessed and Slayer. This album is menacing as hell, do not proceed with caution… go in and prepare to be kicked back out. If you want some dark, cryptic Death Metal with no mercy, then this is the stuff of kings. One look at the cover art and you know you’ll never be the same – the curiosity will kill you if you aren’t prepared.

The album resembles many things, but none of them too closely. The production (courtesy of Andy Classen from Holy Moses) sounds like an early Dan Swanö recording and aged well. The vocalist roars like Barney Greenway of Napalm Death,the riffs reminds one of Florida Death Metal (Deicide and Massacre especially), the eccentric rawness is not too distant from the Austrian bands (e.g., Pungent Stench, Disharmonic Orchestra).

For old school Death Metal, it’s as special and haunting as they come, but with more doom as the special ingredients. Where Hypocrisy’s “Penetralia” was bludgeoning with its tone, this one is heavy as shit but laidback at the same time, it kills you with the rhythm rather than the massiveness of the guitar tone. It isn’t the Swedish chainsaw, but deafening and cavernous like bastardized thrash on crack. Most of the riffs are mid-paced crushers while the drumming is ballistic bombs bombarding the earth.

You could play this album to five Death Metal veteran listeners and they would all find new comparison points. The only consistency is the interplay between paranoia-inducing Possessed riffs (i.e., ever-decreasing circles that threaten to reduce the musical space to a singularity) and evil -as fuck Slayer riffs.

You should your hands on this. Even if you had any hint of liking Death Metal and came across this album, you’d take one look at the cover and know off the bat that it would be some good shit; it just has this killer old school sound mixed in with some soiled doom and gloom. As their only release, you have no excuse to let this one slip away from your ears.

“Indicium De Mortuis” is brilliant, but requires concerted effort and attention. The result is some of the most adventurous and fluid Death Metal of its time. No exaggeration.

Tracks:

1. CD1: Burning Existence
2. Intro
3. Subordinate Gods
4. Bleeding Inheritance
5. Quo Vadis (Everlasting Life)
6. Indicium De Mortuis
7. My Requiem
8. Voices Of Forgotten Souls
9. Blasphemous Process
10. Countess Bathory (Venom cover)
11. CD2: Immortalis
12. The Cross
13. Blood In, Blood Out
14. Brotherhood Of Snakes
15. Final Death

Genres: Death Metal

GPSR Information:
Manufacturer:
Hammerheart Records BV
P.O. Box 277, 6300 AG Valkenburg, Netherlands
info(at)hammerheart.com