Remnants of Existence

When I read the name of the Greek band Blessed by Perversion for the first time, I thought, hm, the name is not so great chosen. But I nevertheless listened to their second work “Remnants of Existance” and I must say that despite the somewhat, let's say, provocative name I am positively surprised by the music.

The cover is worthy of a death metal CD, it is held in dark colors, very gloomy and apocalyptic, so the visual impression is already successful. But how is it musically?

"Blessed by Perversion" play quite technical death metal, which is located in the mid-tempo range. When I say technical death metal, by the way, I don't mean the technical fiddling from the drawing board that some bands play, but as a reference Monstrosity came directly to my mind at the first listening, whose last album is stylistically quite similar. From the song structures as well as the vocals, which are quite deep and in places are underlaid with distorted growls. However, the band does not simply copy, but underlay their songs with quite vicious keyboard sounds, which makes the tracks quite varied and interesting. If you listen to the album more often, other influences like (due to the keyboards) Nocturnus (A.D.), Suffocation, Atheist or even the more technical Death albums (especially Human) come to mind.

These influences are quite clearly recognizable in songs like “Caverns of Torture” (listen to the riff and compare it with “Souls to Deny”) or also “Within Moments” (the keyboard and the bass could also have been used so or so similar in “Human”). However, there are no songs on the album that really stand out, the compositions are all on a pretty good level.

The production is as a death metal production should sound , the instruments are all produced balanced and the voice is aggressive and powerful.

Blessed by Perversion have written a very original and entertaining album, which does not copy from their influences, but skillfully combines their features into an independent work. If there are points of criticism of the album, then the playing time, which with less than half an hour in my eyes (and ears) is much too short. Perhaps a cover would have made a nice bonus candy.

Rating: 8,4 out of 10