http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Tiamat/Clouds/2229/Eternal_Decadent/1245

Two-paragraph 2005 review riddled with SPaG issues. Stuff like:

http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Overcast/Expectational_Dilution/5083

Lacks content

Ultra Boris is godly do not question his ways.

All the song structures are completely illogical, going from part to part and saying nothing in the process, sounding like a project put together from stringing together their favorite parts from jam tapes into what sound like songs, but are really just a collection of incongruous parts. This is what happens when someone has nothing to offer musically, so dresses up generic mediocre Y2K "grind" in unorthodox sounds like divebombs for the sake of being "different" or "unique."

May I add that I personally love Maruta and I think Forward Into Regression is an awesome album, but that's my opinion, and I know others will disagree, but there's no reason this album should receive a 0% rating.

It wouldn't hurt if they went on like this - 81%
black_slime, March 28th, 2012
NextLast
Before Lamb Of God started making music, that's a bit more mature, than music on this album, their name was Burn The Priest. Although I like today's Lamb Of God more, Burn The Priest was not so bad at all, even though "it happened" 13 years ago. Some idiots, haters on batteries that is, call LoG trendy and shit, and other call LoG forgettable. So really do make up your mind please, because last time I checked something can't be both black and white at the same time. Some others say that this album is as bad as later on and so on...and really I'm fucking tired of that bullshit, so I'm going to say this once and for all. LoG, or this particular album, is not nearly as trendy as the DEFINITION OF TRENDYNESS called BUGGER FOR MY SHITLENTINE, second of all, if a band wants quality production, let them have it, these are digital times, and for a reason do bands re-record, or remaster old albums so they sound more clearer and more ear-friendly, and thirdly what kind of an argument is "their music is trendy yap yap yap"; like Slayer, Exodus, Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth weren't trendy and popular among 80's kids? As far as this album goes, you can clearly see some basics of their later work, so I'm going to talk about that and why this album succeeds and fails.

The truth is you can consider this a grindish deathish foundation for their later work. The riffage is not so "developed" ,it's rather more slugish, I'd say, and simpler than later work. But still, in consideration of this being a grindcore album(more grindcore than death metal), I'd say that they pretty much succeed, and for a debut album this is pretty pretty good. At some points riffage reminds me of Nasum or Napalm Death. So considering that while listening to this album gives you a feeling of the lack of originality...but considering the other thing, like it was late 90's and this is their first full length album.... I think that that slight feeling is forgivable, because the whole idea and atmosphere of the songs overtakes you completely,just like Brutal Truth or any other 90's grind band, thus succeeding in the whole grindcore idea. Yes some tremolos and open string riffing with some palm mutes work well in the grindcore genre. So riffage gets a solid 14% for being plain good, and making a good impression for the later on work. Vocals live up to the whole grind idea too. Screeching and some snarling fit the music background perfectly. Some say that this is better than later Randy's work, but i beg to differ. This is grindcore as you said, and later's LoG work is groove metal. Two different things, so yes if you like grind more, then screeching blazing growling snarl vocals are better. Anyways vocals are pure agony on the vocal chords, just like grind vocals should be, the change between deeper and higher pitch ensure that the songs wouldn't be monotonous. So vocals get 17% for being close to perfection in the grind genre, although I preffer deeper gutturals and pig squealing.

Lyrics are also quite "hard" to understand, being surreal and fucking insane as they are(again a bit of Napalm Death here). Some may not like, some may, but all in all everyone must agree the lyrics have a good message, they don't have to be about killing and massacres to be good. So lyrics get 15% for being OK, out of the ordinary. The other thing that amazes me is Chris's drumming, his debut, because he started playing drums at the age of 21, and at the point when this album was recorded he played drums for 5 years or so, and already he tore them apart like he was doing it his whole life. Hard thrashy fast rhythms, fast blastbeats, slow sludgey rhythm, he had it all by the time this album was recorded. All of that worked very well with John's exceptionally simplistic yet efficient bass lines. So drumming gets 20% being very very amazing doing it's part in a grindcore band, and bass lines get 15% for working well as the rhythm section keeping together the whole sound.

Like I said this is the band's foundation work, with the "New American Gospel" being that transition between groovy grindcore and the Megadeth + Blood For Blood + Pantera mixture. So in which parts does this album fail? Well for one thing, it lacks the "Wow factor", although it is pretty good, pretty moshable and headbangable, in other words enjoyable. The other thing it fails in is originality, but it's nothing VERY crucial. The thing that mostly gets on my nerves is that "The Great Southern Trendkill" feeling, and that's a big minus for this album. So judging by my feelings, this album would get 11% less for these annoying facts, but objectively it's worth it's grade and most certainly your time. So if you like crunchy, fast-slow extremely moshable songs, then this is the album for you.

Brilliant Slow Death Metal - 95%
MnemonicInduction, September 12th, 2004

This album is an amazingly atmospheric and crushing slow death metal album. Released by this rather cult band in 1989 I think, not many have heard of them. But for sure tohse people are missing out. Every track here is brilliant slow miserable metal.
I will go through them track by track.
1) Creep-O-Rama starts with a some catchy lead work which pushes forward into the fastest song on the album. Pretty much fast all the way through, very brutal, reminds me of morbid angel.
2) Resurrection Cemetary is another quite brutal speedy number. This is only short and has few slow parts, but these parts hint at what is to come.
3) Devestating Empire Towards Humanity is a beautiful S.L.O.W death metal song. It starts with a piano/acoustic guitar intro which flows into the doomy riffs that proceed. This is very depressing and very like diSEMBOWELMENT. To me this is the best track on the album. Utter misery and brutality put to music. Amazing.
4) Dying Day starts abruptly with a riff that would sound out of place ont he previous song. This one is also very slow and doomy. Not as miserable or long as the last one. Or as fast and short as the first 2. It is more of a mid paced mid length track (but it brusts into speed near the end). Great deep barked vocals here and some catchy riffs. Even contains some evil spoken word vocals. Vocals remind me of Obituary but better.
5) Unperceivable Life again a short and brutal track. Very fast and then it suddenly fades out. Too much like track two to be original hence only 96% scoring for this album.
6) The finale starts with a riff slower than Devastating Empire Towards Humanity 's ones. This song has some solos in and keeps up the funereal pace mostly, though it picks up a bit but this still keeps the doomy atmosphere. The singer barks incomprehensibly here, brilliant. Very melancholic song which is a nice end to a great album.
This album changed my music views and helped me discover other slow death metal bands liek Winter, diSEMBOWELMENT, Sorrow, Unburied, Decomposed etc. Though this band is better than all of them. The cheesy title may put some off but the music is as brutal as it gets in some palces while utterly gloomy in others. An all round masterpiece.

a bit depressive, but really aggressive - 85%
brgo, April 14th, 2005
When i first listened to this demo i was shocked! The matterial is great and very well played. Some riffs seem to be complex, but are still played 100% accurate. I like their approach to black metal which is very aggresive, fast and a bit more depressed, especially lyrics sound a bit melancholic. Riffs are very diverse and fast, so you'll never get bored with them. The vocals are screaming (most time) and deep growling (few times) with some clean parts when the whole thing slows down. I think the only spoiler is production. It's too clean and polished for black metal, especially for a demo!! But their depressive touch adds black aura to atmosphere. Still a great demo!