By Andrew Bansal
Los Angeles heavy metal quartet Desecrate have been toiling hard in local circles for what seems like an eternity. They’ve remained consistently prolific in terms of live performances at any and every club around town and occasionally elsewhere, but when it comes to releasing new music, there has always much deliberation, thought and planning behind it. Three years after they put out their sophomore full-length ‘At The Edge Of Sanity’, they self-released their third LP ‘Of Death And Damnation’ in March 2015. It’s an album that does not limit itself to any sub-genre definitions but one that succeeds in defining the musical personality of this band better than any of their past studio efforts and firmly puts them on a map that extends beyond the city of Los Angeles.
The compellingly well-crafted instrumental ‘Last Rites’ provides an ideal start to this 10-track, 48-minute record, and the gripping contrast between clean and harsh vocals is fully in focus from the next song ‘The Sound Of Dying’ all the way through to the final moments of the album-closer ‘The Gift Of Pain’. Standout compositions ‘Blackened Skies’, ‘Into The Abyss’ and ‘The Drowning’ contribute largely towards the positivity of the listening experience but every other track also offers something of its own, as the variety is unmistakable. The vocals are punctuated by fluent guitar work and a powerful rhythm section, altogether resulting in the creation of an album that packs a solid punch and comes across as a stellar combination of progressive, thrashy, melodic, modern and old-school metal elements.
Guitarist/vocalist Nick Simile, lead guitarist Chase Becker, bassist Hawk Engvig and drummer Jason D’Amelio have put their best foot forward as musicians, individually and collectively. They have proved that they are no new boys on the block and are well adept at utilizing their abilities to the maximum. That being said, regardless of the quality of the actual musicianship, independently created albums often suffer from sub-par or overdone production values. This is most certainly not the case with this Desecrate album, as producer Tom Chandler has extracted the absolute best and most powerful sound, with an unmissable sense of balance between all layers. This sets the gold standard for modern-day independent metal album production.
Desecrate have successfully expressed themselves on every single note in ‘Of Death And Damnation’, and seem well-poised to garner widespread appreciation that’s now been long overdue.
Rating: 9/10
Related: In-depth Interview With Desecrate
Release Date: March 21st 2015
Track Listing:
01. Last Rites
02. The Sound Of Dying
03. Blackened Skies
04. Into The Abyss
05. The Drowning
06. Eternal War
07. Rings Of Misery
08. Art Of The Devil
09. No Salvation
10. The Gift Of Pain
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