Review by Faithless on February 19, 2020.

Facing censorship and prejudices have been some of the problems that many extreme metal bands in the western part of the planet have faced through the years. Names like Rotting Christ, Marduk or Deicide have scared the masses of brainless church followers that make a big deal when an artist just wants to shock the audiences. Now imagine what is to have an extreme metal band in countries like Israel or Lebanon, where religious extremists are even part of the police and censorship is the daily bread. Well, that’s the case of Kaoteon that had to relocate to the Netherlands after a misunderstanding with the local Lebanon police that were accusing the band of being satanic.

2018 Damnatio Memoriae was their second full length and what a hell of a release it is I must say. This album is pure madness and chaos translated into music; did I say music? I should have said, sonic blasphemous extermination. The core of the band is Mr. Anthony Kaoteon (guitar player) and Walid Wolflust (vocalist) but for this album they recruited two out of this world musicians. On drums Fredrik Widigs from Marduk and on bass Linus Klausenitzer from Obscura as session musicians. I have to say that the addition of these two monsters of metal was a very clever move for the 'not the well-known' band and what technique, skill and devastation those two bring to Damnatio Memoriae!.

Talking about musicianship on this record I have to say that its a delicacy and orgasm for your ears if you enjoy chaotic black/death metal. Anthony is a riff master, ranging from melodic passages a la eastern style to neck breaking blasting riffs. Wolflust only spits venom and hate with his vocals using a variety of shades of high-pitched shrieks (most predominant in the album) and some growls here and there. Fredrik Widigs is a hyper blasting machine behind the kit that elevates the songs to an epic status and Linus Klausenitzer demonstrates that bassists are mostly underrated, but this is not the case. He shows art of the state bass executions that enriches the textures of the whole album. Be a witness of the sonic extermination of these skilled musicians in tracks like “Barren Lands”, “Raging HellFire”, “In The Mouth of Kaos” and the self-titled “Damnatio Memoriae”. In general, the predominant elements you will hear on this record are death metal ones but there is also a blasphemous aura coming from the singer that creates an obscure feeling on it.

Kaoteon breathes Sulphur on this record, lyrics are declarations of hate for existence, politics and social problems like drug use. For instance, take this passage on the song “Raging HellFire” as a synthesis of the ideology behind the lyrics: “We drown our broken dreams on substance, we poison our veins to forget, we burn in perdition forever, here, where patriotism and ignorance are strength”. I really appreciate when metal bands exit the “satan” or “dark-side” approach in their lyrics and make an extra effort to be critical with the reality is surrounding them. Specially, in the oppressive context they grew up.

In conclusion, I have to say that we have a really outstanding record here people. We can be all dicks and say the cliché phrases like for example, Kaoteon has not invented nothing here or a bunch of bands have done this type of musical execution before and better but let’s be honest as well. These guys do it with an animosity and hostility that many bands lack, you can really feel the anger in the vocals and in the lyrics as well as in the music itself. That's why I'm going to give Kaoteon a very high rating. Not a 10 because I expect even more from this Lebanese extreme act in the near future.

Rating: 8.6 out of 10