| Reviews for Infernäl Mäjesty's None Shall Defy |
| A lesson in death/thrash. An incredible album. - 97% |
| Written by msupplier
on November 4th, 2009
|
| This album is one of the most unappreciated pieces of work maybe ever. Sure there are those that know how great it is, but it is rarely mentioned alongside the other greats. Morbid Angel are praised as being gods and innovators, but just listening to these riffs and taking in the atmosphere of the sound on this album should make an avid metal fan aware of the importance of this release. I can't prove it, but I would guess that Morbid Angel learned a little something from these guys. "Overlord" opens up this album and is an absolute monster of a song. Right away you can tell these guys know what they are doing. From the sharp as fuck drum sound to the incredible togetherness of the bass and outstanding guitar sound right into the chorus with an explosion beneath Nemes' raspy chant of "Overlord"! The breaks really highlight how sick the guitar sound is and how impressive the energy is. Tracks such as "Night of the Living Dead", "Anthology of Death", & the title track "None Shall Defy" go through several memorable riffs, breaks, and everything else that create the perfect death/thrash combo. Each being a complete entity of their own. The most brutal track on this slab of sickness is S.O.S.(Satan Our Savior) . Here the blasphemy just oozes from the speakers. The lyrical content and music convey such an unmistakable vision of Satan and pure evil it's impossible not to feel it. This song also introduces almost grind style drum patterns that were non-existent this early on in the young death metal world. "Path of the Psycho" closes out this album (unless you have a reissue version of this release that has bonus tracks) and mainly consists of Psychopath's extraordinary bass abilities, alongside evil chanting and an occasional crash cymbal. Doesn't sound like much, right? Wrong. This track fucking rules. It is so downright evil it's unreal. It feels as if you are in hell. Perfect. To sum this up, Infernal Majesty created a nearly perfect debut album that they have never even come close to rivaling. Hallman and Terror's guitar sound and riffing is perfect, Nemes' drums are solid and interesting while his vocals fit the music great(Bailey was listed as the vocalist on the album, but Nemes did all the vocals). Last but not least, Psychopath's bass playing and sound is still to this day one of my favorites of all time. It stands out so strongly, but fits perfectly. Psycopath and Nemes left after this album and I'm assuming that is a very good reason as to why this band never created another masterpiece. It was definitely the formula of this group as a whole that made them stand out among the rest. Don't let the terrible cover art or the pictures of the band all "glammed" out fool you. They obviously weren't very good at choosing an album cover, and they sure as hell didn't dress themselves appropriately, but this album is devastating from beginning to end. If you haven't heard this, you are missing out on a majorly important piece of metal history that helped shape death metal. |
| NONE!!!!! SHALL DEFY!!!!! - 92% |
| Written by therm
on August 31st, 2005
|
| This is really one of the very best Speed/Thrash albums made in the 80-ies. This album belongs in the upper echelons not only in terms of overall quality but also in terms of it's agressiveness - there's so much inexorable cruelty and commanding intensity there. And this album is not nearly as fast and screaming all the way as is the one that's hailed by many as the most aggressive and unrelenting - " Darkness Descends". But I actually find "None Shall Defy" to be more angry and commanding. The reason is simple: Infernal Majesty are much more directed in their efforts, they don't just unleash all their anger in every section of every song, they use it in effective dosages and this plus the dark nature of the music and lyrics adds up to one interesting and strong album. Among the thrash CD's that I own, this one has one of the hihgest repaly values. The closest comparison could be a cross between these two great albums: Slayer's "Hell Await's" and Morbid Angel's "Altars of Madness". In many ways this is really "Altars..." two years before the fact. Just like Morbid Angel's riffs are not like any other DM band, Infernal Majesty's stuff stands out too - in the same way actually. That is, the riffs somehow manage to be grim and dark and hold a blackish atmosphere while also being fast and brutal and totally Death Metal (or Thrash in this case) with many subdued technical intricacies, that you can hear, but don't really notice in the flow of the song. And their solos are well thought-out too, none of that silly whammy bar cat-in-a-blender type of soloing is to be found here. This band really isn't about the "fun" side of Thrash like say Razor or Tankard. One more element that helps to acchieve this evil atmosphere is the vocals. Returning to the Slayer and Morbid Angel comparisons, they too sound like a cross between Tom Araya and early David Vincent. The vocals are borderline Death Metal and very evil. But he's NOT over the top just screaming away with eyeballs popping out of the forehead. He does it with a passion that you can feel, giving these tales these tales of satanic sacrifice and horror an new realistic and scary dimension. By the way Chris Bailey's voice is the only which my sister calls "disgusting" and dislikes. She's not a metal-girl at all, but over the years she has learned to tolerate the extreme vocal stylings of the bands on my stereo. She even likes some of them. Not these however. They're THAT evil. I could actually agree with her - they ARE disgusting, but for me, as a metalhead speaking about music, this word has a positive meaning, ha ha. The production might seem strange but it's not bad in any way. It's just totally 80-ies. A bit shaky, and a bit different in various sections of the songs. Bassy, thick snare drum. Quite much mid-range on the guitars. But I feel that it works anyway. Buy this album if you can find it (it has been rereleased on Displeased rec.) and let the night of the living dead begin. This album will hit you in the face then take a big sheet of rough sandpaper and clean your ear canals and brains of the polished Fredman Studios stuff. Everything is good here but the absolute highlights include: "Night of the Living Dead", "S.O.S.", "Skeletons in the Closet" and of course the title track - NONE SHALL DEFY!!!!! |
| Flawless Canadian thrash metal. - 92% |
| Written by Cup_Of_Tea
on January 14th, 2005
|
| I love Canadian thrash. Yep, there is nothing more raw, more listenable and riffish as Canadian thrash. Infernal Majesty is one of those bands, and their debut album is a great way to show that I'm right. I would describe this album deadly and technical. Deadly for the part where the vocals, the drums, the solos and the riffs pin you down on your chair, and you just sit there listening, banging, destroying or whatever you do when you hear a killer tune. As for the technical part, it's quite logical, isn't it? This album has so many riffs that it makes you wanna cry, since you can't even get used to one riff, when another kicks in! And the riffs themselves are quite the good shit, believe me. They have the heavyness of Dark Angel, but have actually nothing in common. Yes it seems to be a darker Venom, but this is pure thrash, and has really nothing to do with them either. I would say that my favorite is Overlord. It's fast as hell, and the solos are to my liking, and more. R.I.P. is actually a intro to the next song Night Of The Living Dead... It starts with a Venomish riff, fastly developing in a strong mid-tempo killer (If Dark Angel ever tried to have influence from other bands on Time Does Not Heal riffs, this would be the ones). Afterwards it slows down to a few verses, and then it continues on faster. A fine work of art, I'd say, especially on the catchy and spooky as hell part when the guys yells something about Killing all that lives, and unholy terror, creepy. S.O.S. has it all, especially the intro riff. Furious song, very much to my liking. The title track annoys me with one thing actually... the intro riff. It reminds me to a mallcorish sound, that was perhaps not present then, but still not to my liking. But then it comes all together, and the chorus rules. Now we go for the better part of the album - Skeletons in the Closet is quite the thrasher, and the riffs simply kill me. on 0:40 starts a variation of a riff that quite gets you and when you think it's the top, another riff comes transforming the previous one into a killer of killers and a cool solo(repeat 3 times with different riffs). Awesome. Anthology of Death again has the stupid intro riff, but it's not as present as before and is developed in a continous attack of thrash riffs. Lovely. :) Into The Unknown is cool, but compared to Hell On Earth quit weak. Hell on Earth is the usual kick me in the balls killer thrash act with mid-tempo and killer speed changes. I'd say, quite the song. What to say that hasn't been said before? This album owns you completely, and besides 2 or 3 bad riffs, the other 160(I didn't count, I'm no freak ;) ) will probably kill you just the same. This is basic thrash literature kiddo's, own or di... don't listen to thrash metal :)) |
| One of the greatest albums of all time... - 99% |
| Written by Disciple_Of_Metal
on January 2nd, 2005
|
| ...and definitely the best CD to come from Canada. Why this work of art is not praised more than it has been is nothing less than baffling. From 1987, this album was released in very good company (Terribly Certainty, Under The Sign Of The Black Mark, Scream Bloody Gore - to name only a few...) and yet it in no way does it fail to reach the standards set by these and other big names of the metal scene at this time, and in fact in some ways even excels. What is it? It's thrash metal from Toronto (Razor, Anvil, Exciter... yes metalheads, some good bands are from that area and Infernal Majesty are not an exception) - though calling them simply thrash fails to describe how versatile they are. S.O.S. is arguably modern death metal, the kind you might have heard Suffocation and Behemoth try to make. They're thrash, but they are so evil that the sound they create puts certain black metal bands to shame. And they are not symphonic – there are no keyboards to be found on this album, and yet it’s a hundred times more evil than the combination of the entire Norsecore genre and other wannabe Black Metal (WARNING: this album can potentially kill people who think Cradle of Filth are evil). They don't avoid being overtly satanic, and it rules; but they also delve into psychological matter (see Skeletons In The Closet) and the historical (Overlord is about the invasion of Normandy), and even the epic Night of the Living dead was inspired by none other than the classic horror film of the same name. The music and the lyrics work so well together that when you close your eyes you can obtain the perfect image of zombies roaming around killing everything they can get their hands on. Moreover, it's technical without going anywhere near the forget-how-to-write-a-decent-song syndrome that Yngwie (and many other progressive metal bands) are plagued with. There are some riffs here that are only played once in a whole song – as in the epic Night of the Living Dead – the main verse riff has new variations each time it is used. The band is never staying in one particular speed, they'd rather utilize a variety of tempos and in virtually every song they'll suddenly change the speed on you and turn the song into something new, and they're damn good at it. One minute you'll be going so fast your neck could fall off, but then you'll be thrown into total evil doom fucking metal, and it works beautifully. And some of the most amazing solo sections known to mankind are found on this album (Anthology of Death takes the crown here). Seriously, fans of all forms of metal can enjoy this album, because it has it all. You have to hear the rip-your-head-off speed of Skeletons In The Closet, the slow and doomy epic Night of the Living Dead, and the godly solo section of Anthology of Death. Every track stands out, every track is evil, and every track is downright heavy metal. It’s badass. Very fucking badass. |
| Dark Thrash with a Venomous Bite! - 90% |
| Written by Dmonic
on May 6th, 2003
|
| One of Canada'a many excellent thrash bands brings us this total gem of an album. "None Shall Defy" is simply filled to the brim with sinister thrash metal. There are many bands that attempt to create a "dark" sound, however, Infernal Majesty pull it off here with very little difficulty. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I must say that the riffs on this album sound downright evil. The songs range from straight ahead thrashers, such as "S.O.S." and "Skeletons In The Closet", to more complex/technical thrash pieces, such as "Anthology Of Death", to the foreboding dirge sections of "Into the Unknown" (a well-executed break from the generally fast pace of the album). The riffs are vicious, and sharp enough to slice through bone, however, there is still an incredible amount of atmosphere to be found on this disc from beginning to end. I hate to overuse the word "dark", but, in all honesty, it pretty much sums this album up. Don't look for clean vocals here, as they are more along the lines of "Show No Mercy" era Slayer meets Possessed. As might be expected, the lyrics deal with familiar ground (Satan, the undead, etc.), but it's all part of this nicely arranged package of twisted thrash! This album is definitely not a lighthearted romp, and you may feel like washing the blood off of your hands afterwards, so consider yourself warned! Simply excellent! "Bleed for me!!!!" |