Monument Of Death

Monument Of Death is the debut from Blood Red Throne who feature former Emperor bassist Tchort and Satyricon session member Dod on guitar, Mr. Hustler on vocals, Erlend C on bass, and Freddy B on drums. This release is being reviewed a couple of days before it's eligable for the archives, as it was released early-mid December of 2001. Blood Red Throne is one of quite a few bands recently appearing in the Metal scene that don't add anything new to the genre, but take the current and past accomplishments of other bands and perfect the sound. With Blood Red Throne, they take the sound and song writing style of early Deicide and mix it with a touch of Morbid Angel, Death, and Cannibal Corpse. Through the 9 songs of death and murder, Blood Red Throne manage to throw in a lot of catchy riffs and fast drum runs. The songs are structured in a way that makes them all interesting with their own feel. The riffs are semi-technical and the rhythm and styles change often in each song. For example: Souls Of Damnation has mostly Deicide styled riffs with fast double bass and snare, but then out of nowhere Morbid Angel and Monstrosity influenced guitar work is used and this totally changes up the feel of the music. This song writing style being used by Blood Red Throne is somewhat simple in nature, but very effective as each change up is a welcome addition; Blood Red Throne rarely get repetitive or uninteresting. Other highlights include the almost Amon Amarth like Dream Controlled Murder and the neck breaking Mary Whispers Of Death- check out that head banging groove at the beginning! Each band member contributes quality performances, with the drumming and riffs being the main highlight; although more leads would have been nice. The vocals are mostly typical Death Metal fair done in a convincing and menacing style. There is a semi-spoken word part in one song that adds nice flavor and I would have liked to have heard more of that. The lyrics are very gruesome and murder filled; a lot of you gore fans will eat the lyrics up. When all is said and done from a musical stand point, these Norwegians are incredibly tight and talented. There aren't really any low points, but the CD loses some steam with Malignant Nothingness and the title track. These songs aren't even close to filler, but they just didn't kick my ass like the rest of the songs did (they also happen to be tracks number 7 and 8). Thankfully, the last song, Path Of Flesh is one of the best on the CD. I highly recommended this devastating and destruction filled release by Blood Red Throne to any Death Metal fan, as each song will break your neck and punish you at every turn!