DIABOLICAL -SWE- Neogenesis [2013] - Album review by NPH - Rate 10/10

DIABOLICAL - SWEDEN - BLACKENED DEATH METAL

Here we are to present and review probably one of the best death black metal albums ever forged in Scandinavian lands, this masterpiece of the Swedish hellions Diabolical goes by the title of "Neogenesis", this conceptual album is an outstanding combo of Epic extreme metal music and literature. This album has all elements to please even the most demanding Metalheads! Without a doubt this is an apocalyptic blackened death metal Masterpiece, so addicting that you can't stop listening to it.
"Neogenesis" sure puts Diabolical on top of what is being done in the field, the skills and tightness of their musicians, the demanding, daring and dynamic musical structures... well it's quite hard to find an album with all this elite top quality sound on these metal days, an album made to triumph in any titanic metal battle! An absolute must for fans of Behemoth, Hate, Watain, Dark Funeral, Marduk, Vader, Rotting Christ and so on!
Raised in a world of chaos and DEATHsruction inhale the winds of hope in a timeless, epic journey through life reborn from ashes!

NeKronos Promotion HELL

DIABOLICAL - Neogenesis - 2013 - Vici Solum Productions
Genre: Blackened Death Metal

"(...)Metamorphosis
Neogenesis
A new sun in the sky
Transforming existence
Time to conquer
Or face the downfall(...)"  DIABOLICAL - "Metamorphosis"

The band:
Diabolical, for those yet unfamiliar with the band, are a Swedish blackened death metal band with 17 years of existence already, born in Stockholm's darkest pits, they never stopped improving and renewing their expressive and furious metal art, all this has given them loads of great reviews as well as a greatly appreciated live performances in and outside Swedish soils. With the release of "Neogenesis" the band has proved to be one of the best bands in the genre. This demanding conceptual album is without a doubt a top quality blackened death metal work of art, easily becoming one of the best epic extreme metal pieces in metal history!

The new album musicaly:
The sixth album "Neogenesis" is a huge strep forwards on Diabolical's long career, I can only describe it as an Apocalyptic death black metal masterpiece! The morbidly dark atmosphere, the daring dynamic musical structures are for sure a product of pure musical geniality, bringing this band to death black metal elite and consequently on top of what has been done in this extreme metal camp. Once you think of these musical genre you probably shall fit the band easily into Polish soils... well this time, we have some of the best pieces of the genre yes, but with a very own Scandinavian darkened soul inside!
The album is filled with heretic and brutal metal discharges combined in perfection with slower but yet spine-chilling melodies and grooves that will probably haunt your ears for a long, long time.
"Neogenegis" is an absolutely obligatory album for fans of Behemoth, Hate, Watain, Dark Funeral, Marduk, Vader, Rotting Christ. You would probably get some vague remembrances of Morbid Angel colossal extremity and Dimmu Borgir/Behemoth brutal but yet Epic extreme metal aura, all of this but with a very own Diabolical morbidly dark raised atmosphere and sound!

The lyrics and concept of the album:
Without a doubt we can't only judge "Neogenesis" as a musical album but as a conceptual piece of art where literature combines with extreme metal music in perfection. Under the surface of such brilliant devastating brutal music we have a not lesser interesting tale to be told across the 104 pages of this media-book (bundled together with the audio CD). Here each song of the album is represented by a chapter on this post-apocalyptical novel. The history tells us of Neos character reborn into this new wicked world, a world risen from the ashes of a apocalyptic downfall. On this journey Neos will find loads of curious characters, friends of foes? Who knows? More I won't tell, so that you won't lose any interest to read this inspired novel developed by the genius mind of Carl Stjärnlov (guitars and vocals) who is also responsible for all rich lyrical work on this album, without a doubt a perfect addition to this smashing work, a "cherry on top of the cake" as some may say. Carl is also responsible for some of the outstanding artwork that enriches the new album into perfection, indeed a brilliant mind in the Scandinavian metal scene, a great musician, writer and designer in fact!

The band members and album production:
"Neogenesis" reveals Diabolical at their absolute best. The demanding skills and tightness of their musicians, the dynamism of the demolishing discharges of DeATHsruction in contrast with the decadent slower deviant melodies... oh well, it's hard to find an album so complete in every aspect and with all these top quality sound on this metal days, an album made to triumph in any titanic metal battle!
The guitar work by Sverker, Carl and Tobias is huge, an absolute highlight across all this album colossal structure. The outstanding vocal work by Sverker, Carl and Dan is no other but brilliant to say the least, variations from strong demolishing classical death metal into the most rotten n' ugly black metal ones, still with the add of some perfect fitting clean vocals and choirs here and there! The elite skilled dynamic drums by Pär Johansson and the pounding bass work by Dan Darforth sure elevates Diabolical's sound into the highest level.
The introduction of outstanding Epic orchestral arrangements into this album are a perfect fit to the music, becoming part of the music and not the music itself as it happens with some symphonic extreme metal bands.
The meticulous album recordings that took over a year and the album production by Sverker Widgren (main vocals and guitars) at Necromorbus Studio, Stockholm ( Watain, Demonical, Destroyer 666, Setherial) are another of the highest points on this album, creating a perfect matching darkly enthroned clean sound, that in all ways delivers a crown to the band's majestic extreme music!

The album tracks:
In such a brutal quality release like this one it's always hard, if not impossible to find a lesser good track, think that the all concept and execution of the album is about perfect! Devastating fast tracks like "Into Oblivion", "Metamorphosis", "World in Silence" and "Wolves’ Choir" contrast with the slower epic deviances like the tracks "Oracle", "Reincarnation of the Damned", "Fields of Nihil", "Dialogue with the Dead" and "The Age to Come", all of this gives the album an impressive dynamism. Should also comment about some instrumental tracks like "Ex" with such an ear catching decayed piano melody and "Humanitas" a choir enriched track that finishes out the album. All this packed together, shall give you the feeling that you need to press play and listen to the entire album again and again!

The Epilog:
In all "Neogenesis" is a masterpiece where Metal Art meets literature in such Apocalyptic Epic proportions, with all this the band has built the world's first literary concept album. A diamond on any extreme metal addict collection! An addicting album that hardly should disappoint anyone with a extreme metal taste and not only, it sure has all needed attributes to triumph on such demanding elite metal scene, I dare to say that with "Neogenesis" Diabolical have been crowned as Kings, the Kings of Scandinavian blackened death metal! One of the best albums of extreme metal of the last years and a perfect "music meets literature" combo!
With the creation of the colossal piece "Neogenesis" Diabolical sound has no boundaries, they have set a new mark in extreme metal and shall conquer all!!!
In a new World raised from the grey ashes of apocalypse and destruction you need to conquer before you become a slave. Make your stand and step out of your own hell, make your own path and lead your life into a new beginning, a new genesis of Mankind, reborn by its own hand!!!

RüPä - NeKronos Promotion HELL


RATE: 10/10

Here is the Tracklist for the album:

DIABOLICAL - "Neogenesis" - CD 2013

01 - Into Oblivion
02 - Metamorphosis
03 - Oracle
04 - Ex
05 - World in Silence
06 - Reincarnation of the Damned
07 - Fields of Nihil
08 - Dialogue with the Dead
09 - Wolves’ Choir
10 - The Age to Come
11 - Humanitas


Total playing time = 55m


Recording Line-up:

Sverker Widgren - Guitars - Vocals
Carl Stjärnlöv - Guitars - Vocals
Tobias Jansson - Lead Guitars
Dan Darforth - Bass, Vocals
Pär Johansson - Drums

Check out the lyric video "Into Oblivion" @ http://youtu.be/dgeWIhz35TQ



Check out the pre-production teaser for "Neogenesis" @ http://youtu.be/KlMNkMtM-4k




For further Information check:
OFFICIAL SITE: HTTP://WWW.DIABOLICAL.SE
FACEBOOK PROFILE: HTTP://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/DIABOLICALOFFICIAL
YOUTUBE CHANNEL: HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/DIABOLICALOFFICIAL
MYSPACE PROFILE: HTTP://WWW.MYSPACE.COM/RELIGIONIST

IN-QUEST -BEL- Chapter IIX: The Odyssey of Eternity [2013] - Album review by NPH - Rate 8,5/10

IN-QUEST - BELGIUM - TECHNICAL DEATH METAL

Here we are to present and review the 8th album of Belgian death metallers In-Quest, the album goes by the suggestive title of "Chapter IIX : The Odyssey of Eternity". This is another smashing work from one of the best Belgian death metal bands of today's days, exploring deeper and sounding more complex than ever before. Their technical death metal musical combines perfectly with the hypnotic melodies that remain constant on the bands own sound since long years now!
Warning, this album shall haunt your ears with such delightful epic but still brutal sound for quite long time! Probably the most exact and precise album the band has ever made, tight as hell, you need to go on listening to it, on and on... so easily addicting and obligating you always to search for more and more details as you become more familiar to this piece of musical art!
Be sure to put your hands into this In-Quest album if you are found of technical metal sound in the vein of Meshuggah, Strapping Young Lad, Cynic, Textures, Fear Factory, Death and so on... put your headphones and embark yourself on this "Odyssey of Eternity"!

NeKronos Promotion HELL

IN-QUEST - Chapter IIX : The Odyssey of Eternity - 2013 - [ Self-Released ]
Genre: Technical Death Metal

"(...)A circular nullibist in denial, that the soul exists elapsed for infinity, an endless quest those in disbelief, this is the "Odyssey of Eternity""  Enter Eternity Of Lethargy - "Chapter IIX : The Odyssey of Eternity"

For those unfamiliar with In-Quest, I can only let you know that they are probably some of the most hard to categorize, challenging musicians you may have heard in quite some time. A band that was born in Antwerp (Belgium) back in 1994, ever since, they've proved to be one of the best and most challenging and respected Belgian bands. They play  an enlightened death metal full of outstanding technical details with the add of delightful hypnotic melodies, yet never losing the sound brutality, all this powered up by the smashing vocals of their Swedish singer MiQe Löfberg!
In-Quest are also a damn underrated band that has already played in several great tours, like the ones with Nile, Fear Factory, etc. they also played on tons of great shows in and outside Belgium like the one on the main stage of Belgium famous Graspop Metal Meeting Festival!

The new and 8th work "Chapter IIX :The Odyssey of Eternity" is another step forwards in the bands ascent, probably the most exact and precise release of the bands career, combining dynamic and skilled technical death metal sound with their own usual melodic elements that shall catch your attention! In fact it's a sound that refuses to accept standard categorization, better to be listened with full attention so you can catch all the hidden details into this modern, melodic, energetic, intense and technical creativity, something hard to find elsewhere this days! The album features 8 songs played on 8 string spanning on a curious exact 44:44 minutes length! This all, in the most epic and complex material built to the date by the band.

“The Odyssey of Eternity” takes you into a journey across a world drenched in chaos and disorder, times where mankind values are lost! The band sound explores all that to the limits, here chaos rules on such avant-garde progressive / technical sound, proving that this band masters these complex death metal morphosis! This art requires the best out from the musicians themselves. Grab your headphones and listen to such delightful and virtuous melodic solos from Douglas, the raged vocal variations of MiQe, the killer dynamic and skilled drums by Gert together with the pounding bass from Frederick with the add of wickedly chaotic rhythms by Korre. All this material combined sure creates an artistically chaotic, yet technical and tight piece of art for adepts!

The lyrics mostly written by the MiQe’s creative mind follow the traditional In-Quest themes of human condition and consequent decay of values and the downfall humanity itself, the darkened future dominated by technology and a vitiated society. Yet on this release the infinity/eternity of cosmos, time itself as well as the social position of Man on this immense universe takes the main importance lyrically!
The engineering, mix and mastering done by Jochem Jacobs (Textures) and recordings at Splitsecondsound and Dougtape couldn't go better. On such a demanding and complex album, the production needs to be an absolute highlight so that you can hear in detail all the instruments. What can I say... they sure reached a perfect ending result on this camp!

On this album the band created an uniform quality release where the tracks connect to each other in perfection creating an idea of an never-ending hypnotic album, an album that goes on and on, as some use to say "... into eternity and beyond"! Each time you listen to it with full attention you will notice more an more illuminated details, in this way it’s surely hard to capture highlights on this album, simply because of all the uniform complexity of the album conception! Still tracks like "Neo-Pseudo Existence", "The Algorhythmic Alignments" and "Yearn To Return [Liquidation Fails]" may be closer to In-Quest traditional sound, those are the ones who capture my ears attention the most!

“Chapter IIX: The Odyssey of Eternity” is a technical death metal discharge, an obligatory album for all adepts of a skilful technical and progressive death metal. An absolute must if you are into bands like Meshuggah, Strapping Young Lad, Cynic, Fear Factory, Textures, Death and several other quality bands in this vein!
Epic, abstract, methodical and precise the 8th album of the Belgian In-Quest has all to capture demanding technical death metallers attention.
This creative eloquent piece of art is a true Odyssey that shall echo on your ears for all Eternity!

RüPä - NeKronos Promotion HELL


RATE: 8,5/10

Here is the Tracklist for the album:

IN-QUEST - "Chapter IIX : The Odyssey of Eternity" - CD 2013

1 - Enter Eternity Of Lethargy
2 - Taedium Vitae
3 - Elliptical Orbits In Disbelief
4 - Reiterated Cycles Of Celestial Spheres
5 - Neo-Pseudo Existence
6 - Infinite Sleep For The Hollow
7 - The Algorhythmic Alignments
8 - Yearn To Return [Liquidation Fails]

Total playing time = 44m44s


Recording Line-up:

MiQe Löfberg - Vocals
Douglas Verhoeven - Leads
Gert Monden - Drums
Korre Lauwereins - Rhythms
Frederick Peeters - Bass

Check out the teaser video for "Chapter IIX : The Odyssey of Eternity" @
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kV4kko_QHs




For further Information check:
OFFICIAL SITE: HTTP://WWW.IN-QUEST.BE 
OFFICIAL YOUTUBE CHANNEL: HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/INQUESTOFFICIAL 
FACEBOOK PROFILE: HTTP://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/INQUESTOFFICIAL?REF=TS
MYSPACE: HTTP://WWW.MYSPACE.COM/INQUESTOFFICIAL 

GENERAL CONTACT : INFO@IN-QUEST.BE 
BOOKING CONTACT : DOUGLAS@IN-QUEST.BE