Review by Tomek on April 9, 2013.

Empatic came to life in 2005 after two other bands ceased to exist. It took two years to complete the songs for their first demo and three more to compose enough for the debut. Songs from demo ended up on the aforementioned and they mesh with the rest quite well. Add countless shows, lots of determination, do it yourself attitude and a little bit of luck with finding the right label, and Empatic was out against the world. Five years from the start to get to the first album is a bit of time, but all hard work paid off. Enter “Gods Of Thousand Souls”.

Musically it is a very gripping and quite varied slab of Death/Thrash with awesome groove, good riffs and tons of melodies that simply don’t want to leave your mind. Guitars, bass, drums, vocals create melodic lines deviously arranged to intertwine with each other’s barbaric extremity. Vocals brutal and not overly exposed, even though sometimes monotonous, attack with interesting lyrics and I have a feeling that Maciek has a lot more to offer and it’s just a matter of time and practice for him to fully use his throat. What drummer is doing on here is worth of couple of listens with attention on drums only, and I have to say that finding out about him leaving makes me a little nervous. Hope the guy that just came back to the band is as good. Guitars create lots of interesting instrumental work here but somehow having two guitar players doesn’t fill my speakers completely and all the time. Sometimes it feels that there is only one guitar and it feels like something is missing, but those moments are very scarce and bass and drums take care of that quickly and way before there is a chance on deliberating on that. Whole album is full of chugginess with lots of hooks, groove, tempo changes and ever present melody. Sound on the album is juicy, all instruments selective. It’s a thrill to go through the whole album finding all elements but there's another reason why I keep coming back to this one. It's the melodies and solos that those two guys put out. There is so much of it that it compensates for any weaker spots that I found, but I may as well say the same thing about the rest of the band.

To me all songs on the album are good in their own way and having just a few to point out would take too much away from the rest and could be very misleading I believe. My recommendation is to get the album and give it an extensive listen or few before buying because it may not be up everybody’s alley. Album came out in 2010 so it should be available pretty much everywhere. From what I read on the net, they are working on new material and that one I hope to get when is fresh and dripping paint. They got me yearning for more.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 7
Production: 9
Originality: 7
Overall: 7

Rating: 7.8 out of 10