Review by Arek on May 2, 2021.

Thanks to the gentleman with the mysterious nickname Nameless (git.) there was all this commotion, which was called KIRA. When the death metal body called Nomad in which he was involved became too tight, and the left hand path tempted with the dark side of the force, in the year 2015 Kira started its existence. After completing the line-up and two years of perfecting musical ideas from hell, the 14-track Ancient Lies was created. But we're not here for that, not yet, not now! Three summers and winters later, when Kira's line-up grew to a quintet and new ideas matured, a second album was born and it was named Peccatum Et Blasphemia.

Yes, this 10-piece work is the subject of my verbal distortions. Thanks to Ossuary Records, this album took on physical form and got itself into my hands. Before the act of consumption however, it is worth mentioning the characters who poured drops of their sweat on this occasion. Well-known for his participation in Behemoth and Nomad's father - Seth composed and played guitar in ‘The Fearful One’. Damian Gwardzik from Northern Plague went crazy on drums in 2 songs. And the graphic side was taken care of by Michał "Xaay" Loranc himself and it must be admitted that his ‘flaming’ vision harmonizes with the hellish nature of the album.

On their second album Kira served us a quite varied dish, where the main note is hoarse black metal with elements of death, but there are also doom-like tendencies. For example, ‘One Gram Of Your Soul’ brings back memories of early Tiamat from "The Astral Sleep" era. Although the album should be described as quite fast and aggressive, we will also experience some solid slowdowns in the ‘Temple Of Suffering’ melody, in 2/3 of ‘Lord Of Hallucinations’ and the character of ‘The Fearful One’ and ‘Weakness Isn't Breathless’. Each piece is enhanced with a glowing blast beat part however and everything would be OK, if not for... Somehow I don't like the sound of the album. The drums are fuzzy, and the guitars lack power in the fast attacks. Only the bass, as soon as music slows down, breaks through and crushes. But these are just my observations. The authors probably wanted the blackness and sulphur to breathe from the record and achieved it. The album is good to listen to nevertheless. It is aggressive, biting, but it also has an atmosphere that makes you feel fear and evil, blood and sweat, and the stench of hellish depths.

Peccatum Et Blasphemia is certainly not a complete album. It will not raise Kira to the thrones of hell, but it is certainly an album that can raise some interest in the band. After all, as the title of the first track says, this is just the opening of the gates of hell, and see for yourself the power of the flames bursting from the cover of the album.

Rating: 7.4 out of 10

Review by Lawrence Stillman on October 9, 2024.

18 years after their formation, Another Dimension finally releases their debut full-length. Take one look at the sole founding member left in this album line-up, and you can already guess who they will take their influence from...

Surprisingly, this doesn't feel like an Intestine Baalism worship album like Baa-Rhythm did; instead, they took the IB influences and combined them with the thrashy elements from one of the bands that one of the members is affiliated with, Terror Squad, and the overly melodic rhythms that appeared in "Slaughter Of The Soul". As a result, this album is more melodic and thrashy than any IB album, and in exchange, a good chunk of the brutality that IB is known for is lost. However, it is still very aggressive and brutal for a melodic death metal album (which is not a high bar), and being able to fill my fix for a more outside-the-norm melodic death metal experience is always welcome. Anything that can take me away from the Gothenburg-core bullshit is always welcome.

The songs themselves are not that complex or unique compared to the rest of the genre. While some of the songs took a more Gothenburg approach to songwriting (like the ones that immediately start with a verse instead of an intro), the rest did all their intros in various different ways, which made the songs even more distinguishable. For example, the last track of the album, 'Under The Spell', opens with a pretty standard riff, but they slow down and then build up to an epic riff with a very drawn-out shriek laid on top. It is very epic, and it reminds me of Gekiai no Yobigoe from ICDD's second album. I love sections like this, so I was ecstatic when another band put their own spin on this underrated trope. It was a nice break from all the melodic death metal bands that try to make it as radio-friendly as possible, given how they write their songs as if their audiences have absolutely zero attention span. What's next? Melodic death metal songs that are written to be as short as grindcore?

Musically, the guitars here are very raw and have the typical Swedeath HM2 buzzsaw tone to them, just way less dominating. And with it, the vocals now have the biggest presence in the mix, being very forward. It constantly switches from blackened thrash vocals like Sabbat or Venom to groove metal roars like later Fear Factory or the typical death growls found on Intestine Baalism and OSDM releases. The constant vocal swapping does make it very entertaining. The drums here also had a very raw sound, which also meant that the hi-hat and ride cymbals were too low in the mix, so it was indeed not a good listen for me. The bass is buried like usual, just like on any album with raw production. Although I have to admit that the raw production does give it a 90s feel that made the album much better than if it had been mixed in the same way that 2000s melodic death metal did, like Arch Enemy after Johan left (which sucks big time since they are too polished without a good reason).

While it is not Intestine Baalism, it is still a very good melodic death metal record if you want something like At The Gates if they bothered to write actually good songs that don't try to dumb down their sound for normies. I hope this band isn't a one-hit wonder that dissolves after an album comes out.

Highlights: 'Immortal Black Chaos', 'Hellstorm', 'Under The Spell'

Rating: 9.2 out of 10