Review by Felix on June 27, 2024.

New release, old approach. And how old! The sounds of this release implement a crude thought in my brain: death metal is a big pack of lies. The style likes to present itself as extremely wild, mean and murderous, but in truth there is no genre that is more at peace with itself and more conservative. Puteraeon’s EP is Swedish death metal, no more, no less, and maybe some people find it exciting, but sorry, I cannot share their point of view, at least not whole-heartedly. If you play the same again and again with the always low-tuned guitars and the never-changing deep growls, then you have to take into consideration that the hunger of some people is stilled one day. It needs a special groovy line, an overwhelming intensity, mega-morbid melodies or something else that separates you from the crowd of equal sounding competitors. This element is missing here.

As a consequence, Puteraeon strictly follow the rules of the genre, ot only with respect to the visual design of the artwork. Music-wise, “Left Hand Path” (published 1990 as you know) sends greetings, LG Petrov (R.I.P.) feels fine in hell, but I prefer new releases with new music. Admittedly, I am no big fan of the subgenre, but I am also definitely no death metal hater in any way. Give me the meat saw of Vomitory, it is my most favourite tool and I will sing an ode to it. But some are leaders, others are (technically competent) followers, and Puteraeon belong to the second group. They do not make big mistakes, the production is naturally a totally typical one and I have no doubts concerning their individual integrity. Nevertheless, there is almost no song and not even a single part that stands out. 'Graverobber' holds a few cool lines, but some standardized parts as well.

So if you cannot get enough of the pure dogma of Swedish death metal with all its dragging, high-paced or mid-tempo parts, Quindecennial Horror is for you. It’s a powerful package, but from my point of view we are speaking about the power of the early nineties and you cannot reproduce the effect the style had more than 30 years ago. Anyway, Puteraeon will know their target group and I hope that this group will appreciate the release more than I.

Rating: 6.3 out of 10