Impending Funeral of Man

It's here! Begrime Exemious' first full length, and it delivers. I’m very proud that some very good friends of mine and one of the new forerunners of Canadian Extreme metal have made a major release. I’ve received pre-release mp3’s of the album so I don’t have any opinions on some things that are important in releases such as lyrics, artwork and the likes. But keep reading if you’d like to see my opinions on what I think of the music of the album

Getting right to the production on the album, mostly everything can be heard properly, sans the some important aspects of the drums (Especially in Death metal) The snare is to obscure in the mix and when you do hear it well, its very poppy, and I struggle to hear the tom fills which is really unfortunate, because the tom fills have a Immolation feel to them in the style they're executed. The guitars sound very chainsaw-esqe, which is standard for Death metal, and the bass can be heard very well. The vocals are very torturous, and recorded perfectly. The mastering on the version I’m reviewing is very awkward, but it’s probably a pre-release master, so I shouldn’t worry too much about it as none of these issues take away from the music on the album.

The music found on this album is anything but your typical Death metal band. The first full length into their career and Begrime Exemious already have a unique sound. Their music is very evil sounding, but it's very hard to describe their sound,but it definitely feels rooted in Thrash/Black metal. One thing I notice is that a few songs from derive from a similar upbeat tempo, but good thing there are songs on the album that do sway from this often enough that It doesn’t get too cumbersome.

Most songs on here are very good, some definitely do stand out more than others. The opening “Morbid Invocation” is an excellent track, I find at times it sounds like it could off “The Ten Commandments” By Malevolent Creation, it really does have an old school feel to it. The third track, for me, does stand out as being my favorite on the album. "Sanctum Sanctorum" is a crushing combination of Death metal and Black metal, the riffs are very dissonant, and the drumming is very intricate. Only a couple of tracks do I scratch my head to. The first being Archfiend, don’t get me wrong, it’s an excellent track and a staple in their repertoire, but I don’t see why it was re-recorded, nothing new seems added, and the version on the EP was perfect. Grand Deceiver is the only track where there are some very uncertain parts for me, such as the annoying sweeping lead that appears a few times in the song, and the breakdown of the song in the middle isn’t that good as well.
All in all, excellent debut album, and I hope it does very well for the band. It’s good to see they finally got a label and a big release out!

Songs 8/10
Production 7/10
Performances 10/10