Produced by Asphyxia
Released: 2008
Almost ten years ago a teenage death metal band from Hobart won a grant from their state government that allowed them to release their first album. That band was Psycroptic, now one of the most celebrated Australian metal bands internationally. While Adelaide's Asphyxia may not quite be ready to step up to that level just yet, the path they have taken to come this far is almost identical.
With help from the SA Youth Arts Board, this band has put together a pretty impressive debut album, recorded only six months after their first live shows. Asphyxia presents a good mix of well-played death metal blended with melodic thrash and the occasional progressive moment. While tracks like "The Hooded Figure" give away their age and relative inexperience (though, to be fair, there are bands twice their age that still write songs far worse than this) it is otherwise difficult to tell that these guys aren't even out of high school. The guitar tone is sharp and crunchy and there is some excellent soloing throughout. Zach Taylor handles both the bowel-shaking rumbling growl and the barking shriek with equal aplomb and there isn't a clean vocal line to be heard.
"Silvertongue" sets the tone nicely after a brief acoustic build up, a nicely demonic track that has as a companion piece the album's closer, "Dragonlore". "Horrific Reign" harbours more of a Cannibal Corpse influence than the rest of the tracks, which with their thrashy guitar sound probably owes more to bands like Malevolent Creation. Asphyxia also has an epic, progressive proclivity also, best exemplified in the 7-minute plus album centrepiece "Blood and Snow", a track that highlights this young group's real potential.
Asphyxia is a promising beginning. There are moments where it is clear they are trying to mix things up a bit too much and a more defined direction would certainly not be a bad thing. However, for a first time effort from such a young band one could not really ask for much better and there is definitely the capacity for a bright future from what is on display here.
- Intro
- Silvertongue
- Horrific Reign
- Defiled
- The Hooded Figure
- Blood and Snow
- Martyr
- World Overthrown
- Dragonlore
- Outro
Rating: 72%
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