Review by Alex on March 26, 2020.

Makes me think Temple of Void, Disma and Loathfinder merged with Megalith Levitation. I'm not big on stoner doom, but the last mention is the most recent in the sub-genre I've heard that hits like this. Sandbreaker's debut album Sandbreaker does a damn fine job of mixing death metal with stoner doom metal; holy heck I thought this would be a disaster but the decision to invest in a plowing machine the size of a dreadnought responded with favorable returns. After all the desert is humongous in sand-scape, so as an initiative to get the job done in a timely fashion, the conductors in Sandbreaker pooled their resources and bought the biggest one they could find.

All silliness aside, the potential here to turn this band into an underground powerhouse is exceedingly high. Can’t stop playing this one, the CD has been sitting in the disc-tray of the computer for so long, you'd think I was troubleshooting hardware or there's a problem with the drivers. The only complaint is, I wish the EP was not so damn short. Surely a song or two could have been added, nonetheless, no harm done. All songs move with a slow bouldering weight, the vocals are just excellent, near-perfect growl pitch, the guitars sound mean as fuck and the drumming is precisely on-time and punishing all the while, any heavier and I'd have to add Encoffination to the list of mentions; especially on a song like 'Eternal Heat' where the movement ranges from mid-paced to blasted toilingly dense, making you feel as though the desert heat is draining your life force. 'Season of the Plow' has a sly little guitar solo that emboldens and levitates the music, would have liked to hear more. Just an all-round Goliath of sounds, squeezing you to a diminished grain.

The record is evenly mixed, and that monotone fuzz often attributed to stoner doom metal is non-existent on Sandbreaker; whoever handled the production did an exemplary job. I didn't find myself sleeping half-way through the music, so kudos! to that individual.

The cover artwork emits a sensation of being overwhelmed all the while adventurous; plus, there's a nod at Death's "Leprosy" on the back cover. Sandbreaker is already very immersive, but if you want to turn it up a notch, listen to it when watching agricultural videos of farmers out in the field fertilizing the land or reaping crops with their tractors and other machinery. Now that plowing's out the way, move on to the next step in cultivation, get that forest grown! there are mouths to feed. A high recommendation for farmers.

Rating: 7.7 out of 10

Review by Death8699 on October 30, 2018.

Despite the negative feedback that Deicide was given for the quality of this release, I still think that it's underestimated. Sure the riffs are less complex and there's a limited amount of leads, but I think everything flowed throughout this whole album. We can do without the lyrics, but that's what makes Deicide Deicide. When I originally heard this album, I too had a negative opinion about it. Now with repeated listens to, I beg to differ.

Compared to past releases, the album is way less technical. That doesn't make it unworthy of praise. The riffs go well along with the vocals and backup vocals as well even though I think that it's only Glen doing the backup screams. His voice is burley as usual but this time, you can somewhat understand what he's saying without looking at the lyric sheet. 

The Hoffman brothers put forth quality music when writing this and I don't think that they got lazy, I just think that they wanted to put forth something less technical riff-wise. For Insineratehymn, it's back to the basics with the guitar playing. Still good leads, just a lot less of them. Tons of tremolo picked riffs mixed with basic picking. Glen's bass guitar could've been a little bit louder, but I think that it was good enough. I really liked the creativity on Deicide's part. They have had previous albums way more technical than this one, but overall, Insineratehymn hits home with me. Nothing wrong with the music, it flows. Sure they took a long while from their previous release to make another 30 minute album, but still I think that it's good. For guitarists like myself, we tend to be pretty critical when it comes to sub-par album releases. Just because this release isn't as technical as previous ones, there's no need to put this one down as a flop. Deicide tried to make it more basic when they wrote this album, nothing more. The leads could've been more incorporated in the mix, but what they put forth was enough I think.

Songs such as "Bible Basher" and "Standing In The Flames" are quite memorable. The production was decent. Jim Morris did a good job with the mixing of this album. For the most part, all of the instruments were mixed evenly even though like I said the bass could've been a bit louder. Everything else was finely heard, the guitar, drums and vocals.

Give it a try to accept this album that did so poorly with the feedback from fans. I think it's another good one to add to their discography. It's not too technical, but still catchy as all hell so try listening to it a few more times before you judge it. One hell of a sick album!

Rating: 9 out of 10