Review by Greg on December 18, 2024.

From Algeria hails a band with a moniker sure to cause some reaction in every metalhead: Jugulator. Hey, I didn't specify which kind of reaction, after all. Anyways, their third full-length Imperator Insector hit the shelves last summer, and I don't know what to expect from it. It's worth noting that the album is based on a sort of concept, where the leader of this insect-like mutant species represented on the artwork, apart from apparently having decapitated Joey Belladonna, fights to overcome humanity. So, expect a predictable cheesy, wannabe-menacing intro with a war declaration, courtesy of the imperator himself, and we're ready to go.

Right off the bat, Jugulator seems to deliver a quite by-the-numbers modern thrash experience. What sets the guys apart from other similar bands, in a sea of overproduced records of average, moderately fast modern Exodus-esque revival, is the vocals. Frontman Ramzy Abbas employs a half-clean vocal style, with all due proportions of the Eric A.K., or maybe John Bush, school of melodic yet gritty frontmen. A welcome change from the norm, and while certainly not nearly as interesting or charismatic as those two, it's a valuable asset nonetheless. The rest of the band is hardly something to write home about. I even find it difficult to believe that the drummer is human – or at least, I mean, I hope for him, but his performance, almost devoid of fills, while competent, fails to convey any kind of excitement.

There is also a worrying trend where every song is as long, if not longer, than the one preceding it, and it all starts with a 5-minute duration. It's quite a surprise, then, that the longest episode 'From Underworld' is the one that initially convinced me the most, with maybe the only refrain that might be able to stick in your memory, and it's the only one they perplexingly don't pick up later in the song, where they lose themselves in hit-or-miss instrumental solutions (are those tribal percussions?). The only other things I clearly remembered after some listens were how the two tracks that bookend the LP sound virtually identical – this is a complaint usually thrown around when there isn't a great deal of variety between them, but no, the chorus is nigh identical – and the guitar melody at about 3:50 in the title-track, which might be the Judas Priest homage the band name had been suggesting all along.

Adding to this, a couple of strange phenomena needs a deeper analysis. Most of the songs feature some blast-beat sections, along with quasi-blackened riffing, scattered across the album, as a welcome touch of variety. Nevertheless, for some reason they always, always, always appear after a solo is finished (bar one), to the point that – I swear I'm not kidding about it – by the time I arrived at 'From Underworld' I totally nailed the timing of the growl, despite that being my absolute first listen of the song, so predictable it was by then. I can't believe they didn't notice how strange of an effect it has.

Weird things don't end here. The special edition of Imperator Insector includes no less than the whole album again, only with a guest musician in every track. Still wondering what the reason for keeping those two as separate versions was, a listen was enough to convince me it was the right thing to do. I genuinely started to wonder whether said guests were meant to improve the songs, with a personal twist, or ruin them, they're that puzzling. Sure, sometimes hearing a different vocal approach might be refreshing, and sure there's a bass solo added somewhere, but more often than not there was a head-scratcher waiting for you. For the strangest pick, I'm honestly torn between the absolutely botched solo in 'Infected Focus', which is so cacophonic that it might as well have been played by the late Richard Benson, if he wasn't already dead by the time the album came out, and the second verse of 'Atomic Insecticide' that now features clean vocals so pathetic that they might have been taken straight from a Tenacious D song.

Summing up, I can't deny Imperator Insector was a fun album to write about but, when all is said and done, its musical worth was the least fun aspect.

Rating: 5.3 out of 10

Review by Tomek on November 2, 2017.

To come up with an album in death metal that is interesting and original enough to have metalheads talk about it is not an easy thing nowadays. Metal genre is saturated with so much material, that huge percentage of it simply goes unnoticed and unappreciated. Some deserve it, that is a fact, but there is much more that can surprise the listener in many ways, bring something new to the table and at the end move death metal another step forward. Abhordium is one of the latter and their new album has been a reason for my devilish smirk since the day it came in some time ago.

To be honest with you, I did not expect Abhordium to even be death metal when I got this CD in my hands. Not knowing the band’s previous material and prejudicially judging by the cover of the album and band logo, I thought that this is going to be a pvre and kvlt black metal album. Wrong, wrong, wrong!!! Abhordium maliciously punishes its listeners with fast, brutal, chaotic and very technical death metal with darkened and sinister black metal melodies. Well-executed and well-recorded material brings 9 cuts of unforgiving and relentless metal that comes battering down like a speeding semi going downhill with a plow on its front and nothing but rotting flesh ahead. Guitar riffing presented upfront and melodies they smuggle in the background are strong and razor sharp, and should satisfy most metal fans out there. Add maniacal beating that drums are generating here, fat rumble of the bass and vocals ranging from screams and growling to black metal shrieks (with some clean vocal spoken passages here and there), and you better hold on to your seat. This is a complete product, a blackened death metal of the highest caliber. Most of the songs charge forward with blistering speed and mean conduct, making this album an absolute force – but, let’s not forget, that all that deathly insanity is enveloped in a juicy and selective sound that guarantees all sections of your speakers to get a good workout. Sounds like something that you might enjoy? You bet it is!!!

Abhordiums Omega Prayer is a very satisfying slab of musical brutality and chaotic madness, and I can recommend it to anyone that is into blackened death metal that is well executed, recorded and produced. I’ve enjoyed it quite immensely over the last couple days, and even though it is time to move on, I already know that I will come back to that one again and again, and a few more times after that.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10