In the Name of the Father

Altar was getting more mellow. Their blasphemous anger was being redirected to societal criticism. We can thank the local Christian political party in Altar's hometown; in a bid for popularity among the Christian voters they prevented an Altar show, in spite of the fact Altar had moved away from the blasphemous lyrics. Now Altar is back, revitalized, and really pissed off. To quote the song 'God damn you': "You asked for it - you've done it again / You made me loose my control"!

From the moment the openingssample from Conan the Barbarian ends (the part where Conan kills a priest for his robe nearing the temple) the face-smashing brutality is let loose, and there isn't a moment of doubt towards whom this truly hatefull death metal is directed. It's aggressive, fast, and unrelenting, yet just varied enough to keep interest untill the last song. In a time where I thought a band needed keyboards to keep the music interesting Altar showed me the error of my ways. I had no idea of there was such a wide spectrum of agressive riffs untill I heard them symbollically smashing, pummeling and rending Christians apart. The experience from their extensive touring did them well.

Some of the lyrics on here (mostly the more sociocritical ones) still come across a bit awkward, being very down-to-earth, but it does feel a bit more heart-felt oddly enough. One of the elements that characterised Altar's sound were the vocals which were grunted screams instead of screamed grunts. Now they seem to be bellowed out at the top of his lungs with all of the vocalist's might.

This is highly recommended for people who like brutal agressive deathmetal which leans more towards thrash like mid-era Gorefest and Blo.Torch than towards guttural deathmetal like Demilich and Morbid Angel.