Review by JD on September 19, 2010.

Greek Death Metal has been some of the most brutal ever forged by the hands of mere mortals. It is known for it destructive power and its outright snubbing of the mainstream metal to create things that are it’s own. I love musicians who can do that, and back it up with quality music.... just like Homo Iratus.

This Greek threesome create some seriously intense yet melodic Death Metal that is actually catchy while being heavy enough for any metaller in the world. I find myself having to describe them as one part Corrosion Of Conformity, one part Motorhead and one part early Carcass with a sound like Venom mixed with Nuclear Assault sort of vibe as well. Eclectic... yes... yet great.

It is true that Homo Iratus is not very technical, but their ability to execute their music with major power while having so much melody make up for it with. Sadly... this is only a four track EP, which as people know, makes me want more. Being that this is a EP, and having this overly simplistic approach to the recording - brings my rating down somewhat, thankfully I still love it though, and my ratings go up in other areas.

There is a report that Homo Iratus have broken-up at the time that I write this. I hope that this report is just nothing more than speculation. These guys have found their way into my playing rotation and that is hard in the first place. I hope that the band are still together because they owe everyone a full album. This is just a tease for my metallic pallet. I hate being teased, but I will wait to hear more.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 6.5
Originality: 7
Overall: 8

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Review by Jack on June 1, 2002.

Sacred Steel kick open “Slaughter Prophecy” with the short intro track, ‘The Immortal Curse’ which follows on to some of the weirdest and wackiest combination of power and death metal I have laid ever my ears upon. The opening song ‘Slaughter Prophecy’, starts off with some slow to mid tempo guitar riffing before the pounding of the skins breaks in... "alright, this is pretty good," I begin to think. That pounding drumming soon warps the slow to mid-tempo guitars into blinding and shredding guitar numbers. "This is starting to get damn good... we could be onto a winner here!" I exclaim in pure excitement. Harsh and unforgiving death metal vocals soon raise the bar another notch; "this could definitely be a strong 8+/10 mark," my adrenaline levels are starting to rise, then terror strikes...

After the furious roars from the Sacred Steel vocalist start erupting from my speakers, what can only be described as the highest adolescent boy wail possible rips through my sound system, interrupting my short lived bliss. In pure shock, I throw a brick at my stereo. Stuff that, I need to calm down. That was some truly awful garbage.

It is just plain unforgiving as to what Sacred Steel did to ‘Slaughter Prophecy’; the song had absolutely everything going for it, but when the power metal whines reared their ugly little heads, I was almost ready to relegate “Slaughter Prophecy” to coaster status.

After picking my stereo up from the local electronics bloke, I very gingerly pop “Slaughter Prophecy” back into the CD player and brace myself. Summoning all my restraint, I sit there and absorb the full 45 minutes of Sacred Steel.

Jumping forward a few hours, I can honestly say that “Slaughter Prophecy” is not quite as awful as I thought it would be. In fact it is just marginally better. If you dig the power metal clichés of ‘Raise the Metal Fist’ and ‘Let the Witches Burn’, then you are truly a metal crusader and will probably find more redeeming features than I did on “Slaughter Prophecy”.

Bottom Line: This crap is just too much for me. Why on earth would you use rubbishy teenage angst whining, when you have such an untapped resource is death metal vocals? Only for the true power metal warriors out there!

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 6
Atmosphere: 5
Production: 7
Originality: 5
Overall: 5

Rating: 5.6 out of 10