Review by Carl on January 3, 2023.

Strap yourself in for a double dose of old school as fuck death metal from The Netherlands! Rooted in the late 80's/early 90's these bands embody everything that is true and authentic about death metal, and no-one who has even the slightest interest in primordial death metal should miss out on these two acts.

The first to throw in their collective hats are Eternal Solstice. Delivering a mix between doomy slow crawl and uptempo buzzing guitar, these guys immediately establish that they have their roots firmly in the sounds pioneered by bands like early Death, Possessed and Massacre, with a few nods to early Deicide as well. And judging from the track "Obscuration", I think we can count Immolation among further influences, because the opening riff to their track "Immolation" is 'borrowed' in a less than subtle manner. Although the songs are pretty basic in execution, the band know how to built up atmosphere and tension by alternating their pummeling slow sections with more uptempo parts, giving the music the needed variation. The vicious snarling vocals, dive-bomb leads and a smattering of keyboard ambiance in "Melancholic Characters" further complete this picture of pure, classic death metal, with the heavy and well-balanced production job doing the rest.

The intro to the Mourning side starts off with a saxophone rendition of what I think is the theme from "The Godfather", which is unexpected, I'll give them that. What is also unexpected is that the saxophone makes another appearance in the last track "The Mourning After". Original, yes, but the purist in me is still not sure what to think of it. As for the rest of Mourning's material, they follow a similar path to what Eternal Solstice does, but upping the aggression angle. The influence of bands like Possessed and Death is present here as well, yet the riffing seems to have an added thrash edge to it, reminding me of Slayer and Kreator at their most intense. The vocals are slightly distorted, bringing to mind of what Pete Steele did on the first Carnivore album, and these work well with the belligerent riffing. Combined with the fast/slow interaction of the songs, they add some extra menace to the general atmosphere, with the clear production as the finishing touch.

This split is a great starting point to explore both these bands further. Eternal Solstice went on to release 3 full length albums, of which "The Wish Is Father to the Thought" is one you should not miss out on, although their other output is fairly consistent as well. Mourning only released a full length after this, and I can not say enough to recommend it. Finding the middle ground between Asphyx, Carnivore and Winter, it's just stupid good and does not nearly get enough of the credit it deserves.

Get a hold of this split and the rest of their discography, I'd say. True old school death metal does not come any more pure than this.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10