Review by JD on August 3, 2014.

The Czech Republic has been offering good extreme metal for a while now. They seem to take metal, throw away the blueprints and make it their own. Many forms of metal are invoked from this former Soviet Union satellite, and one such act is blackened pagan metallists Panychida - a band I have reviewed awhile back.

Combining various types of instruments along with their brand of black brutal guitar riffs and blast beat drums, Panychida has finally come of age. Their last album I reviewed (2011 - Woodland Journey - Rating: 8.8) was showing a band that was near their potential and yet not quite there at that point in time. With this new album and matured as musicians, this band has now have arrived.

With eleven great tracks flowing effortlessly as one, it is difficult to choose a few tracks to talk about so the solution is to put it out there. Grief For An Idol is one of the strongest albums in the whole black/pagan metal scene. They know when to go at it full force, when to pull back and when just to go for the jugular. The truest mark of a band that has finally worked it all out.

This is an album that has made a firm fan of me. Panychida has proven my prediction right, and is one that probably will hit my top ten. It is satisfying for me when any band lives up to every ounce of their potential and they even give hints that there is a new level to come. I'll wait to see what it is that is next, and hope like mad that they have not peaked just yet.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10