Review by Alex on February 18, 2019.

Let’s step into the dark province that Italy’s Demonomancy prepares. Black/death metal played with much vibrancy, might and will is what Demonomancy brings to the altar before the congregation of foul listeners. The 8 rituals presented on Poisoned Atonement provide us with a violent display of the band’s soundscape. The music on here takes many shapes and forms thus offering unique and enjoyable moments of thrashing and bestial drumming, deep death metal vocal pronunciations and ritualistic chanting. Buzz-saw guitars bestride the flow of the music and add piquancy to the hatred spewed forth from the vocals. This is just a direct assault on the ears of anyone within range of the beast wielding the death machine.

Keeping in mind that this is still black/death metal by which it is relatively difficult to implement far-flung ideas without damaging the original blueprint of the genre’s music. When we take a look at what is offered on Poisoned Atonement, one can for sure say that this is by no means anything new nor innovative; however, Demonomancy’s ability to create each song diversely is a welcome proficiency. Simply adhering to one monotonous sound or method of song structure will definitely see a band drown the listener in boredom especially if he/she is one that looks forward to multiple tempo changes and catchy compositions. When inspecting songs such as “Fiery Herald Unbound (The Victorious Predator)”, “The Day of The Lord” and “Nefarious Spawn of Methodical Chaos” one can certainly distinguish the difference each has. From the Slayer-esque Tom Araya vocal opening scream on “Fiery Herald Unbound (The Victorious Predator)” to the mid paced flow, folk like vocals and instrumental pattern of “The Day Of The Lord” to the tremolo picking and thrash driven almost crossover flow of “Nefarious Spawn Of Methodical Chaos”; the listener truly gets a mixed bag of metal to satiate his/her musical cravings given they are fans of the genres mentioned. Keeping in mind some bands can barely go 20 minutes without becoming blandly soporific, Demonomancy manages to keep the listener/s at attentive ears throughout the 43 minutes of Poisoned Atonement’s playing time. 

The production is stellar and quite clean considering this is black/death metal, however the music is intriguing and exercises dominance through a beefy sound that delivers some awesome headbanging moments. As stated before this kind of metal has been done many times over in the past, however Demonomancy’s ability to make slight incisions an injections of foreign rudiments on the surface level of the music, gives it the appeal of relevance and eventually longevity. Poisoned Atonement is definitely one of the albums that should have a high ranking on most year end top 20 lists and so forth. More attention needs to be given to Demonomancy due to their successfully calculated approach to the black/death genre which has heralded many notable acts.

Rating: 8 out of 10