Continually reminding us that the band was once comprised of 2 original Vital Remains members on the Let Us Pray album, Godless Rising are back with their full length debut after their decent but rather non descript old school death metal EP.

What we have here is some classic old school death metal from the late 80’s/early 90’s (think Possessed meets Deicide meets some of the JL America stuff); primal, un-polished (except for the drums), anti Christian and relatively conventional with a dose of modern brutality (blast beats and vocals). There is some tight drumming from (now ex-member) Mike Mcpherson (Goreality, Leukorrhea) a few half hearted solos and plenty of oh so evil themes delivered with the expected huffy growl, though not so guttural you can’t decipher it. It’s all acceptable stuff, but like the EP, seems rather unnecessary when considering the death metal that’s been released this year, even for a so called throwback album.

And therein lies the main issue with Godless Rising, despite their old school claims, they still don’t seem quite sure if they are a full on throwback band as their songs try to force upon you, or if they want to be a more modern brutal death metal act as their production and percussion indicates. Still though, this is way better than say the recent Spun In Darkness affair and has some slightly more memorable moments than say, the Drawn and Quartered, as Godless Rising have a bit more character with their old school charm.

If you are unfamiliar with old Vital Remains, (not the 10 minute song, solo filled Glen Benton fronted version), you wont hear the Vital Remains connection, but if you have heard either Let Us Pray or even Into Cold Darkness, you might hear a bit of old Vital Remains in tracks like “Sadistic Ritual Carnage”, “The Lair of Cerberus” and “Ancient Gravelands” which manage to drip with a studded denim jacket menace of yore. Just don’t expect anyhting groundbreaking or anything vaguely like Dechristianize.

[Visit the band's website]

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