If I'm to
trust into the latest batch of CD's I have received from the ever-growing
Italian label Punishment 18, then they are spreading their rooster into more
brutal areas of metal. I.e. more death metal rather than thrash/crossover. One
of these CD's, 'Break of the Second Seal - The Eternal Damnation' by Italian
combo Stillness' Blade, is the most brutal output from Punishment 18 so far, no
doubt.
Keeping their path clean and staying true to the genre, Stillness' Blade break
no boundaries. The three piece perform brutal and for the most part fast death
metal the old school way. In fact, the (session) drummer Antonio Donadeo is all
over the place to the point where you wonder if he's human at all.
The album holds enough variation to make it interesting and for example a little
surprise in the shape of some death funk weirdness in Materialistic Suffocation.
And check out the tune Sadistic Flesh Pleasure - the beginning of that song is
downright groovy the naughty way!
I don't expect 'Break of the Second Seal' to storm the charts, but it is
certainly a solid piece of death metal. Do try it at home.
