False Enlightenment

When reviewing so many death metal releases in the past year or more I’ve noticed how many of them have been rated by me with very good or often even perfect notes. I almost started to wonder whether I didn’t get too soft and not enough demanding and critical in my judgement of this kind of music, as it would seem almost impossible that all of a sudden there were so many great death metal bands and releases in the past two or three years; more than in the whole decade! But checking all those bands and their albums I know that I wasn’t wrong – this is the fact that the present death metal scene seems to be stronger than ever since the early 90’s. I’m not even going to go through all the most memorable names and the titles of their albums, but I guess it would be enough if I remind you three brilliant bands from Hellthrasher Productions roster: Escarnium, Intestinal and Decaying. Then only just last week I was massacred and my body was torn into pieces by the new addition to the catalogue of this label, band called Ectovoid and now the process of decomposition is carried on by Resurgency!

Resurgency is a band, which should be familiar to all of you I believe, if you remember their split CD with Desolator, which the same Hellthrasher has unleashed last year (2011). And if you don’t recall it, let me just say this split contained Resurgency’s demo “Dark Revival” and the band itself hails from Greece and was formed in 2009, featuring members of Necrovorous most noticeably. “False Enlightenment” is the awaited debut album of those Greeks and I must say that I was truly blown away by the sounds of it, right from the beginning this music just smashed me and dismembered, providing the most passionate torments. And this is why I do not criticise the bands too much, even if they aren’t original or whatever… As long as the music is killer, the riffs are able to skin alive, then I have just nothing to complain on. And in case of “False Enlightenment” this is just pure death metal masterpiece!

Resurgency offers here 40 minutes of death metal devastation, with ten tracks, of which three have been taken, but re-recorded from the “Dark Revival” demo / split with Desolator. And while listening to them and comparing to the demo I can just say that everything here is simply better. The production on “False Enlightenment” is more brutal, more energetic and tight, the songs are also more aggressive, often faster, but when it’s necessary they’re also heavier and more massive. All in all I feel like I have been listening to a complete, almost perfect death metal album! Stylistically again I can compare Resurgency’s death metal to Sinister – mainly for the atmosphere of the music, but also due to many riffs, which just really remind me this old Dutch crew! Just listen to this album and then play “Afterburner” or “Aggressive Measures” – the resemblance is really huge. Also the vocals remind me Aad Kloosterwaard’s style of brutal growling. But that comparison is not a complaint, really, rather a try to find a way to get you familiar with Resurgency’s style a bit more. Besides, there are also some other bands, which I can compare those Greeks to – starting with the legendary, but nearly forgotten Buffalo, US based Baphomet (later Banished), as well as Disincarnate (listen to the opening theme of “Hideous Premonition”, with this great guitar lead – it does sound a lot like something from “Dreams of a Carrion Kind” and in style of James Murphy), then you can think of some of the recent Deicide albums… and also Gutted (GODS!), Massacre, Obituary and Death’s “Leprosy”, even Sepultura’s “Beneath the Remains”! But I mean mainly about some single riffs. Most of the music has been played in very fast tempos, is tight and brutal as fuck, and so it does remind me the mentioned Sinister… I do fuckin like the arrangements a lot, great riffs, the production… And also the fact that along with many fast or more mid paced parts there was room for some slower parts as well.

I must say that “False Enlightenment” is awesome. The songwriting on it is really good, I have a feeling like the riffs were carefully selected, to get just the best ones and the same was done for all the arrangements. I feel a lot of passion and enthusiasm in these sounds and an enormous dose of brutal energy, which fulfils my apartment, when I listen to “False Enlightenment”. And with all those fast tempos and massive wall of sound, which Resurgency brings, I get massacred very quickly. Best tracks? Fuck, very difficult to say, but maybe “Where Despair Dominates”, “Hideous Premonition”, “Psychosis”… but technically speaking there’s absolutely nothing wrong in any of those songs. This is just very, very good death metal album!