Review by chrisc7249 on January 24, 2023.

What a cool album title.

And its contents are even cooler. Dark Heresy was a short lived avant-garde death metal band from the United Kingdom that graced the world with one brilliant album, and a few preceding demos which I both have not heard and do not really care to hear; but that’s besides the point. Their 1995 debut “Abstract Principles Taken to Their Logical Extremes” is, in and of itself, quite abstract. And pretty extreme too.

I always pick challenging albums to review, ones that are usually pretty experimental and off-kilter and this one is really no different, and it actually might be the most bizarre one yet. Dark Heresy’s sound is a bit hard to decipher. Imagine if Morbid Angel started listening to a lot of Babylon Sad, Phlebotomized and Pan.Thy.Monium and they decided to make an album in the style of those bands. The opening track is the most straightforward death metal you get on the entire thing, complete with crushing riffs, menacing grooves and killer vocals, and even as the most “death metal” song, the riffs are still pretty weirdly constructed and transition in an oddball fashion. Once you’ve made it through that one, it’s about to get a lot weirder from now on.

The tracks are usually pretty lengthy, with 6 of the 8 tracks spanning over 7 minutes long. That being said, these are not death/doom tracks. For as much inspiration as Dark Heresy takes from the aforementioned bands, those bands all have a heavy presence of doom that Dark Heresy lacks. Their death metal parts, as stated above, are reminiscent of Morbid Angel and the death metal parts are extremely thrashy and ferocious. Everything that surrounds the death thrash parts is… very strange. There’s use of keyboards on a fair bit of the songs, and the vocalist is not afraid to throw in some cleans in a few of the tracks. They blend with multiple different non-metal genres to create a bizarre atmosphere that’s ever changing as the song goes along. Sometimes it’s medieval, sometimes it’s upbeat, sometimes it’s gloomy, and no matter where a song goes, it seems to always be loaded with riffs and blast beats that are expected from the genre. It’s similar in idea to something like say, Phlebotomized, but its execution is completely different, and the two bands sound nothing alike.

The sound of the album fits perfectly with the music. Not too rough around the edges, not too clean, just right in the middle. I love the sound of the drums, personally, but I am not an expert on production and mixing so my ears aren’t nearly as trained as some of the veterans on this site.

Unfortunately, this is one of those albums that, although I’ve always wanted to review it and I have finally sat down and given it my all to describe this album to the best of my ability, this truly is just an album you’re going to have to listen to. It’s so chaotic, progressive, experimental and left field that you’d be doing yourself a disservice to not listen to it at least once. Definitely a gem in the genre, and one that hopefully picks up traction with age to become more of an underground cult classic - more people need to listen to this.

FFO: Phlebotomized, Carbonized, Morbid Angel

Favorite song: The Last Temptation of Pan

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by chrisc7249 on January 24, 2023.

What a cool album title.

And its contents are even cooler. Dark Heresy was a short lived avant-garde death metal band from the United Kingdom that graced the world with one brilliant album, and a few preceding demos which I both have not heard and do not really care to hear; but that’s besides the point. Their 1995 debut “Abstract Principles Taken to Their Logical Extremes” is, in and of itself, quite abstract. And pretty extreme too.

I always pick challenging albums to review, ones that are usually pretty experimental and off-kilter and this one is really no different, and it actually might be the most bizarre one yet. Dark Heresy’s sound is a bit hard to decipher. Imagine if Morbid Angel started listening to a lot of Babylon Sad, Phlebotomized and Pan.Thy.Monium and they decided to make an album in the style of those bands. The opening track is the most straightforward death metal you get on the entire thing, complete with crushing riffs, menacing grooves and killer vocals, and even as the most “death metal” song, the riffs are still pretty weirdly constructed and transition in an oddball fashion. Once you’ve made it through that one, it’s about to get a lot weirder from now on.

The tracks are usually pretty lengthy, with 6 of the 8 tracks spanning over 7 minutes long. That being said, these are not death/doom tracks. For as much inspiration as Dark Heresy takes from the aforementioned bands, those bands all have a heavy presence of doom that Dark Heresy lacks. Their death metal parts, as stated above, are reminiscent of Morbid Angel and the death metal parts are extremely thrashy and ferocious. Everything that surrounds the death thrash parts is… very strange. There’s use of keyboards on a fair bit of the songs, and the vocalist is not afraid to throw in some cleans in a few of the tracks. They blend with multiple different non-metal genres to create a bizarre atmosphere that’s ever changing as the song goes along. Sometimes it’s medieval, sometimes it’s upbeat, sometimes it’s gloomy, and no matter where a song goes, it seems to always be loaded with riffs and blast beats that are expected from the genre. It’s similar in idea to something like say, Phlebotomized, but its execution is completely different, and the two bands sound nothing alike.

The sound of the album fits perfectly with the music. Not too rough around the edges, not too clean, just right in the middle. I love the sound of the drums, personally, but I am not an expert on production and mixing so my ears aren’t nearly as trained as some of the veterans on this site.

Unfortunately, this is one of those albums that, although I’ve always wanted to review it and I have finally sat down and given it my all to describe this album to the best of my ability, this truly is just an album you’re going to have to listen to. It’s so chaotic, progressive, experimental and left field that you’d be doing yourself a disservice to not listen to it at least once. Definitely a gem in the genre, and one that hopefully picks up traction with age to become more of an underground cult classic - more people need to listen to this.

FFO: Phlebotomized, Carbonized, Morbid Angel

Favorite song: The Last Temptation of Pan

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by Felix on March 23, 2022.

Do you know Norway? This is the country where they reanimated the most sinister sub-genre of metal at the beginning of the nineties, but some years later they had forgotten how to forge good black metal. Nowadays, Norway has lost its once leading role on this field. However, this is elegantly compensated for by a huge production of high-quality black thrash. With Seeds Of Death, Evoke joins the noble society around Aura Noir, Shakma, Nekromantheon and many more. And how! Terms like meekness, gentleness and hesitation are foreign words for the three bullies. Seeds Of Death is an outburst of pure frenzy. Should anyone claim otherwise, he is a liar or a pathetic scoundrel.

Okay, I admit that there is also one calm part on this debut. Exactly one. It is the intro to the closer which is performed on a cello or its electronic cousin. This silent intermezzo seems to be the alibi for the guys to prove evidence that they do not suffer from narrow-mindedness. But bad idea, because it constitutes the only non-impulsive and pretty useless sequence here. Anyway, that’s just a marginal note, because the remaining 32 minutes scorch the earth and burn the sky. Evoke worship high velocity, they love to hunt the audience with craggy riffs and evidently they are of the opinion that non-dynamic songs are no songs at all. Perhaps it is true that the seven tracks do not distinguish significantly from each other... and I don’t care. I bought an album, not seven single tracks and Seeds Of Death works in its entity. The whirlwind that the three dudes from Norway create is impressing, no doubt at all.

Three dudes from Norway? That’s not totally right, because the drummer originates from Paraguay and so it is only logical that some percent of the South-American impetuosity shimmers through the tracks. On the other hand, the production does not show the filthy approach some bands from South-America stand for. Seeds Of Death sounds powerful, vigorous and direct, but it avoids a big amount of dirt. Either way, the album does not suffer from the transparent production, because it helps the songs to show their full strength. They are based on very vital riffing and an explosive mood, they can rely on a good flow which is not hurt by badly arranged breaks and they find a good balance between complexity and primitiveness. And I guess it is needless to say that the level of energy is extremely high from the beginning to the end.

Evoke do not use any stylistic devices alien to the genre, but they are clever enough to hide their influences. Seeds Of Death has no obvious big brothers. It stands on its own feet in the centre of the tornado that it creates. Surely, this is a good place to celebrate 'Leviathan’s Victory', to mention one of the best songs. Yet beware, there are no big differences in terms of quality. All tracks add value to the album. Only when you want to find something bad at all costs, you can give the guys the advice to shorten their songs. The technical data (seven songs in 33 minutes) do not indicate an overly opulent design and the tracks do definitely not lack substance as well, but sometimes black thrash feeds on short, crisp bangers. But never mind, the quintessence is Seeds Of Death, aptly published by Pulverised Records, pulverizes everything and marks a highly recommendable work. I am curious to see which fruits will still emerge from these seeds.

Rating: 8.3 out of 10