Review by Krys on October 4, 2001.

I don’t think fans of Kataklysm will be surprised with the music presented on what is already their fifth album. As advertised, our Canadian death metallers, these northern-hyperblasts, returned with brutal, fast and uncompromised rage and chaos that is perfectly composed among monumental groovy riffs that leave you with nothing else but a craving to play it over and over again.

After first two songs I thought I’d go deaf and crazy. ‘Il Diavolo In Me’ and ‘Damnation Is Here’ kicked me so hard I barely stood on my feet during these displays of speed and destruction. Battering blast beats, an unmerciful wall of guitars and screams, growls and other noises of Maurizio Iacono would make me dangerously unstable if they lasted for a few more minutes. Thankfully it stopped... but what came next was beyond words. For about the next 25 minutes I was crawling on my knees banging my head and flashing horns to an unlimited number of godly riffs and then, when I was ready to stand up, I got blown by a shoot between my ears called ‘What We Endure’. Sorry, but during ‘When Time Stands Still’ I only remember a black bag closing over my head, nothing else.

“Epic (The Poetry of War)” will bury you alive with a decimated taste in your mouth caused by a total of only 40 minutes of one of the best death metal releases this year. If you were holding your savings for a special occasion... that moment has come. Buy it and never look back.

Bottom Line: Experience of a life time... get it and get knocked down.

Rating: 9 out of 10