Odour Of Death "Satanic Devotion" CD Digipack

Ep 'Satanic Devotion' contains 5 tracks including cover of Bathory 'Enter the Eternal Fire'

Co-released with Doomsday Elite. Comes in 6-panel digipak.

I came across the Polish act Odour of Death via their vocalist, who has a nice little solo project called Grimcult, where he produces great and raw black metal in the tradition of some old heroes of the genre. In contrast Odour of Death comes with a more modern approach, mixing classic second wave black metal with devastating death metal attacks. Consisting of only two members their latest EP “Satanic Devotion” is a very impressive piece of dark and crushing music. You get four songs plus a cover version of Bathory’s “Enter the Eternal Flame”, making up for a total of 24 minutes. While the cover is a nice extra these lads do not need to kneel down in front of anyone, as they have the quality to stand on their own feet with ease.
The two gentlemen managed to create a sound that is both hard-hitting yet still melodic, inserting enough earworm riffs into their songwriting to satisfy even the most demanding listeners. All the tracks offer pure rush of black metal darkness, replete with robust blast beats and fantastically melodramatic guitar-driven majesty, rounded off by some serious death metal chords and technical perfection. There is a certain dissonant vibe inherent in the music, but ultimately the epic hooks are dominating, with the combination of chaos and order, darkness and light creating a dense yet captivating atmosphere.
Atmosphere is always very important element for each band acting within this genre, and Odour of Death have a fantastic feeling for creating a dense and very unsettling mood. The frosty guitar harmonies are omnipresent and send the listener into the void and into the darkest depths. Despite the icy darkness, and for all their focus on some melodically engaging elements of the genre’s sound, their forte still remains the crushing, oppressive weight of black metal songwriting done right. Of course the typical tremolo runs are part of the game, as well as blast sections and the outstanding and howling vocals. The performances here are among the best I have heard all year, and this is telling something.
The production is flawless, very heavy, but still perfectly balanced and organic. The guitars got enough room to work their magic, and while the rhythm section and the riffs come with a lot of power the vocals also sit on top of the mix to pierce the listener’s soul. “Enter the Eternal Flame” is an amazing piece of music, and once you hit the play button you feel as if the light starts seeping out of your mind. If there is one thing to criticize it might be the running time, as we only got roughly 17 minutes of material (not counting the cover here). I personally can’t wait to check out more from this band.

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