Review by Faithless on December 22, 2021.

From the deep and dark catacombs of the Greek underground death metal scene, the young band Blessed By Perversion emerges to blow my mind like no other band had in quite some time. This is their follow-up album called Remnants Of Existence which is kind of short; only 24 minutes and 33 seconds. Nevertheless, it felt like it was quite a journey into the catacombs of inhuman existence and original death metal.

'Descending To The Catacombs' starts the record as an acoustic, mysterious, and occult intro that sets the mood for what’s to come. I felt like I was descending deep into caverns, tombs, and underground galleries full of rotten bodies and remnants of ancient civilizations now extinct. Once you are into the mood, the bands hit you in the face with 'Gallery Of Bones'. This track is full of tempo changes and interesting dynamics that will be the staple through the whole record. Zig-zagging guitar patterns and a monumental atmosphere almost solemn at times. I think that’s the Hellenic touch the band imprints into their death metal and it certainly works for good, makes their music feel original and fresh (believe me, that’s something difficult to find, especially in the death metal scene).

I consider that even though these musicians are pretty young, they're highly talented and skilled. The vocalization of the singer is outstanding and it does not fall into gurgling or grunting, it’s guttural and brutal but understandable. Guitars are sharp as blades that cut deep into your flesh as you are begging for more. The drum work is consistent and flawless throughout the whole record. The drummer plays in favor of the band’s songwriting and production, not against it. His skills are technical; however, he does not want to show off and overshadow the rest of the instruments. The bass is audible, and I appreciate that fact. For instance, in the song 'Atonement Refused', (which by the way is my favorite song) the bass makes the production beefier and more ominous. I wanted more; I was craving for more after each tune! The record execrates death in a very refined and intelligent way, there is no need to exaggerate with gory lyrics. Each song is a little treasure to discover and every time I listen to Remnants Of Existence I am more convinced of that idea. For example, songs like 'Among The Tombs Of Ancient Gods' and 'Caverns Of Torture' have many catchy riffs, killer drum patterns, and brutal lyrics that enrich the overall experience. The album is full of killer songs, there are no fillers or fat in this follow-up record. After a while into the catacombs of inhuman existence you just emerge at the end of the record to the surface of the earth only to face a mass extinction event with the track 'Within Monumental Chaos'. The record closes with an epic, mid-tempo, and monumental song that evokes apocalyptic landscapes of mass human eradication. As I mentioned before the album blew my mind for its simplistic yet effective and catchy atmosphere. It is not pretentious or over-produced. The production lets the music breathe and the songs take their time to develop the lead motive, ideas are completed masterfully in each of the tracks. The band also draws influences from old-school death metal acts like Morbid Angel and Nile, however, keeping their own distinct and unique identity intact, they worship and respect but do not copycat.

All in all, the follow-up of Blessed By Perversion Remnants Of Existence kept me entertained and blew my mind big time. I don’t want to exaggerate but with more production, these guys will become the next Nile! The music takes its time to breathe and develop in each song and the whole record feels organic and original. If I had listened to this record last year it would have entered my top five favorite albums of 2020. Blessed By Perversion is destined to kick serious ass in the next years, I think we will continue hearing from these guys and the third album will be even more brutal than this one. Highly recommended.

Rating: 8.9 out of 10

Review by Michael on February 27, 2021.

When I read the name of the Greek band Blessed By Perversion for the first time, I thought "hm, the name chosen is not so great". But I nevertheless listened to their second work Remnants Of Existence and I must say that despite the somewhat, let's say, provocative name I am positively surprised by the music.

The cover is worthy of a death metal CD, it is held in dark colors, very gloomy and apocalyptic, so the visual impression is already successful. But how is it musically? Blessed By Perversion play quite technical death metal, which is located in the mid-tempo range. When I say technical death metal, by the way, I don't mean the technical fiddling from the drawing board that some bands play, but as a reference Monstrosity came directly to my mind at the first listening, whose last album is stylistically quite similar. From the song structures as well as the vocals, which are quite deep and in places are underlaid with distorted growls. However, the band does not simply copy, but underlay their songs with quite vicious keyboard sounds, which makes the tracks quite varied and interesting. If you listen to the album more often, other influences like (due to the keyboards) Nocturnus A.D., Suffocation, Atheist or even the more technical Death albums (especially "Human") come to mind. These influences are quite clearly recognizable in songs like 'Caverns of Torture' (listen to the riff and compare it with "Souls to Deny") or also 'Within Moments' (the keyboard and the bass could also have been used so or so similar in "Human"). However, there are no songs on the album that really stand out, the compositions are all on a pretty good level. The production is as a death metal production should sound , the instruments are all produced balanced and the voice is aggressive and powerful.

Blessed By Perversion have written a very original and entertaining album, which does not copy from their influences, but skillfully combines their features into an independent work. If there are points of criticism of the album, then the playing time, which with less than half an hour in my eyes (and ears) is much too short. Perhaps a cover would have made a nice bonus candy.

Rating: 8.4 out of 10

Review by John B. on February 27, 2021.

Leave it to the Greeks to find what death metal is often missing! Blessed by Perversion play the genre at its catchiest, without veering into “melodic” territory; and its most atmospheric without ever sacrificing an ounce of heaviness. If that sounds like a long way of saying “please more keyboards in my death metal!” well yes that’s part of it. But the traditional metal instruments, as well as vocals and lyrics, do a great job of forging the atmosphere too.

Andreas’ vocals are very deep, reminding me of Paul Kuhr from Novembers Doom in his ability to sound at home with slower passages as well the conventional death metal pace. His tone is mostly comprehensible, which is good because the lyrics are worth it. Take this example from 'Gallery of Bones':

'Wooden crosses everywhere
A graveyard under the view
Of their eternal monument
A barren landscape covered with dead soil'

Great stuff! I’ll take that bleak nihilism over aggressive anti-religion any day.

Instrumentally, it’s the last two songs on Remnants of Existence that best encapsulate Blessed by Perversion’s two styles. First, there’s the pummeling ferocity of 'Caverns of Torture'. Kostas and Manolis on the guitars treat us to a duel between choppy bursts of tremolo, and juddering crunches that are so heavy, they’re almost percussive. At their best, Kataklysm did that, so did Dutch greats Severe Torture. Blessed by Perversion keeps right up with those guys. Then we’re back to the haunting atmospheric side with album closer 'Within Monumental Chaos'. Song absolutely merits its title! I love how the keyboard picks up the creepy clean guitar intro, before giving way to a lumbering march of electric guitar. When done right, slow death metal can be heavier than the faster stuff; and 'Within Monumental Chaos' accomplishes that on a level at least equal to Morbid Angel’s "Blessed Are the Sick".

You want fierce high energy death metal? You want a horrifying ride down the dead corners of the human spirit? It’s all here. I’m looking forward to more Blessed by Perversion albums - also, to longer albums, please!

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Chris Pratl on December 12, 2016.

Cardiac Arrest is a Chicago quartet that seems bent on making every horror film nightmare you hold dear come to life. Coming off the brilliance of their last full-length, And Death Shall Set Your Free, the band issues a three-song promo / demo simply titled Promo 2016, but there's really nothing simplistic about this slab of ugliness. It's three songs of pure, unadulterated death metal from the very bowels of rancor and brutality, and that's exactly why these guys are one of my favorite metal acts of the modern era.

I can throw out a plethora of adjectives to describe Cardiac Arrest's overall sound: filthy, dirty, foggy, brutal, battering...and all would be viable assessments, albeit repetitive. Nevertheless, the band possesses a sound that is nothing short of a furious arsenal of volatility and strife that comes across perfectly in the music. I implore you to check out their other albums, as there isn't a bad collective in the bunch. These guys are the real deal through and through, devoid of pretense and phoned-in complacency.

The three tracks on this current promo are everything you could possibly want in a modern day death metal band. The vocals are throaty bellows that are clear enough to hold your interest, yet obstinate enough to blow the dirt right off the cherry-wood sarcophagus in a 100-year-old mausoleum. Musically the band employs amazing time changes and riffs that call upon the forgotten years of early forerunners like Grave, Autopsy or Incantation. There is also an underlying density to the tone without giving way to muddy production or lackadaisical effort. The mood throughout shape-shifts evenly between a dismal b-movie horror score and tempestuous soundtrack to a dimly-lit mansion on the outskirts of town, an imaginative process that is sorely missing in many bands today that rely too heavily on just the lyrics to carry the listener through the story. What a good number of death metal bands fall prey to is the one caustic sound throughout a track or album that seems so good and feels so “dark” that any deviation might lose something in elongated translation. It makes for stale, uninspired sounds and kills any album for me. Cardiac Arrest not only challenges that notion that less is more, they take it to levels of genuine fright and horror, and it never gets old or repetitive. All three tracks on this promo are just amazing, but it's the last track, 'Voices From the Tomb' that will be the classic tune in the band's repertoire. Simply stated, this is one the greatest death metal tracks I've heard in the last five years or so, it's that impressive. If this is what's to come for the next album, it is one of the most anticipated releases for this old fart.

Chicago has a long, if often undermined history in metal's expansive underground. We may not always get the credit we deserve for producing memorable, heavyweight metal bands, but not only are they out there waiting to be heard, they're lead by Cardiac Arrest's unapologetic cult of death-worshipers and grave-dwellers. Give these guys a good, hard listen!

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Review by JD on March 28, 2009.

Mixing a variety of metal genres all at once... Thrash, Death, and even consolidating it all with more than a smattering of old school... Hemoptysis jumps out and is right there in your face and seems to be making a style unique to them. Their name means coughing up blood in medical speak... after hearing the most brutal of metal outings in awhile... I think it really has drawn some blood.

"Who needs a Shepherd?" is by far the truest form of the metal spirit I have come across in many years... It takes every lessons from bands in the past and then they add in some unique and interesting ideas that are totally theirs. It is not too far away from the music that drives us all daily because it is as metal as you can get - no matter how you slice it... Hemoptysis just seems like they have gotten something that is truly individual here.

For a four member band, (and seemingly very young as well) these guys really do know how to Thrash hard. They blaze along as Masaki Murashita (Vocals/guitar) and Jack Flieger (Lead guitar) do attacks that are pinpoint and brutal while the rhythm end made up by bassist Sunao Arai and drummer Travis Thune keep the attack happening like a school of hungry sharks. They are as fresh as newly fallen snow with their approach, but they are as powerful as any Category five hurricane can be as well.

The band explodes outwardly from the first track called 'Shadow Of Death' and does not look back. They hack and slash at you with sonic power but excite your mind as they show that their music is much more than metallic explosion... but a mentally and spiritually exciting trip into the metal abyss.

I would suggest that you pick up the album as soon as possible... then you will see just where my praises are coming from. If you don't get this album, I might have to question your sanity.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 9
Production: 8.5
Originality: 9
Overall: 9

Rating: 8.9 oy of 10

Review by JD on March 7, 2018.

I went into this review, basically not knowing a one damned thing about the band Akroma. I did my research and listened to the CD about four times (my usual, before writing) and I found out some things about Akroma. They are from France, they are a multi-layered, guest heavy, multi personnel band and… they are mind-blowing.

Basing their lyrics on darker biblical studies (7 Deadly Sins and 10 Commandments), as well as other interpretations within them… Akroma comes at you like a buzz saw that has a message to it.  Combining the constant lyrical images with progressive metal, death and black metal with a huge dosing of symphonic and power - you get a project that is hard to describe, and hard to ignore as well.

With expert musicianship and a group of different singers to bring different angles to the music, Akroma shows their stuff.  I loved mostly every track, especially the brutal and haunting 'Sanctus' that seemed to grow and move as if truly alive as it tells its tale.  Even 'Lux Aeterna' shows musical majesty that never overcomes the haunting operatic female vocals or competes with the BM screams that are being done so well. The only song I thought was off was the eight plus minute 'Offertorium'… as it was not as focused in my mind and ears, but still had its moments.

That is what Akroma is, and what the songs are as well. One small speed bump in the greater scope… truly fantastic music and powerful subject matter.  I usually don’t go for this type of music, but I loved this album and all of its twist and turns… and its complex uniqueness as well.  A job well done, from an extreme album that begs to be heard. 

Rating: 8.5 out of 10