Thank goodness for variant releases. The CD version of this French band’s second effort somehow passed me by last year. But here’s to second chances, as War Anthem Records has picked up the vinyl version of one of the better Swedish, HM2 sounding bands of the last couple of years.

If you are a fan of the genre, you probably already have this or are already headed of to your marketplace of choice to purchase this LP or the CD version. And rightfully so, these guys have delivered a superb effort that delivers all the expected classic Swedish influences, mostly early Entombed and Dismember even more so, but also makes it their own with some cool, doomy, somber, moodier segments and songs.

Opening with the raucous gallop of “Servants of Oblivion”,  every box is filled for genre-philes; thick buzzing guitars,  gruff vocals, cantering riffs and oozing grooves.  And while there is oodles of Entombed/Dismember homage, high energy,  like the aforementioned opener, “Relinquished Flesh”, the melodic strains of ” Purify Through Blasphemy”, “Incursion of Evil”, and “Thy Power Infinite” (all three,  pure, more melodic Dismember worship songs), where the band shines are the slower, more lumbering songs like the crushing “Demonic Enn”, “Cursed Beyond Death”, standout, 8 minute, “Death and the Reaper’s Scythe” and pure doom closer “Convicted Faith”, where the killer guitar tone is allowed to writhe and slither with sickly menace.

Though there are no different tracks or artwork for this LP version, for collectors, there are two variants of the LP, a regular black one and a limited, cool icky yellow/greenish version which matches the album artwork perfectly. That’s the one I’ll be grabbing.

In a first half of the year that has seen solid releases in this style from The Plague, Eye of Purgatory, Endseeker, The Generals, Devoured,  and such, this stands as one of the better ones and would have been so last year also. Let’s see what Entrails and Abscession can bring to the table later this year to compete….

[Visit the band's website]

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