I’ve been get a lot of CDs sent to me by truly independent bands – small but talented bands just wanting some press. Luckily it’s  my and Teeth of the Divine’s pleasure to give some exposure to quality acts like At Dusk, Iron Thrones, Johan Wolfgang Pozoj, The Sequence of Prime, Karnak Seti, Ironwood and Oklahoma’s Mesoamerican named Nahurak.

Heck, my favorite album of 2009 was a a self-released effort from Kalisia. I get even more pleasure of receiving and reviewing self-released CDs because of all the hundreds of nameless and faceless digital promos I get inundated with from big name labels/bands that get put on the back burner.

On their self-financed―on their own imprint Final Legion, though―five song debut EP, this duo (featuring Brian Carrigan, former vocalist  of grindcore act Exitium) crank out some very impressive melodic black/death metal that reminded me of Order of Ennead/Council of the Fallen and Epoch of Unlight… only with a dash of grindcore.

It’s very tightly played, delivered with a big label production and the songs have the perfect balance between seething vitriolic black metal, slicing melody and deeper death metal injections. The often blistering pacing is matched by the hawk like shrieks and the death metal is by way of some gruff growls and some transitional lopes.

Jumping right into the fray with opener “Terror Pontifex”, and during the 1:15 minute mark, Nahurak throttle you into paying attention with a killer blasting melody. The same level of tenacious yet melodic delivery surfaces in the third track “Adversarial Ligature” heralding that Nahurak’s songwriting ability as the tune also includes a killer thrashing romp about three minutes in. Then “Excoriated Earth Incantation” shows the band dabbling a more complex delivery with shifty time changes and tech intricacy interwoven into the black sheen―tech/black death grind maybe?

There’s enough quality riffs packed into this compact EP to warrant the $5 asking price.

If any drummers out there fancy being part of what looks to be a very promising US based black/death metal act, go ahead and hit them up while you order the CD from their MySpace page.

[Visit the band's website]

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