War of All Against All

Only a year after a pretty underwhelming release, Diocletian released War of All Against All which sounds interesting, but will it deliver? The album cover is also interesting, to say the least. I don’t understand the idea of a naked Satan, yet the wings look more angelic than demonic? It looks pretty straightforward but with so much detail; in both design and meaning. I liked how Satan out from the shield, which is the band’s logo, but when you consider the fiery clouds in the background, it’s like a rift that’s opened and the background behind Satan is nothingness. Alternatively, in the vinyl version, there’s a different album cover of mankind, as the title suggests: all against all. There’s a more explicit content cover of Satan that is also available on the vinyl version. As for the tracklist, it's kinda strange how you get two songs below two minutes, while the rest of the songs are about the same pace as the debut. The last song is at an astounding sixteen minutes. For whatever reason that may be, you can only hope that it doesn’t sound like a waste of time.

Black Dominion sounds pretty standard, yet heavy for its slow intro. As the song wreaks havoc with sheer blast beats and fast, catchy riffs, this definitely sounds more like a death metal song. The production also sounds great. I guess they made an audible sound with proper use of the desired raw sound. Supposedly the title track starts with some loud guitar noise and drums blasting until the grindcore essence breaches in within the guitars and drums. I like the strong tone from the guitars, with the drums complementing. The unique death growls also sound on point. As the song progresses, it reveals drum layers with intense cymbal work, and thanks to the guitars, it brings out more for its short length. Kingdom of Rats is simply a chaotic song that speaks for itself. It’s got all I could mention in other songs already: the riffs, the blast beats, the combo of shrieking and death growls (oh wait, I didn’t specifically mention that, but there you go). Death Tyrant sounds magnificent! Proper raw death metal sound with a lot of power that’s driven by fantastic rhythm and the drums are fucking obliterating. The guitars later create some sort of atmosphere, especially the cool shouting along the drums. Flawless drumming and riffage. Infernos would have to be the grooviest song on the record. It kinda sounds standard and predictable for the most part, but the outro has some nasty grooves. The drum patterns are also neat.

Desolate Earth, one of the two shortest songs, sounds pretty messy. All I gathered was the loud cymbals, incomprehensible vocals, and a bad mix. Might Is Right is one of the slower songs on the record, with slow drums, riffs, and prominent death growls. This gives a different taste to what the band wrote previously, as it shows that they don’t have to sound always the same. Ironically, as I was opting for something like this, maybe this song wasn’t the best example. It’s not bad, but a bit dull. Nuclear Vomited has the best guitar solo and even amazing bass grooves, but its overwhelming chaos makes the song sound rather simple.

Blood Aeon, the second shortest song, is exactly like Desolate Earth. They could’ve just mixed the two and as one they would sound better. Finally, Fortress of the Unconquerable was, indeed, a waste of time. It has a pretty long intro of about three minutes, which then progresses to some of the laziest riffs I’ve ever heard, until the vocalist reads through the lyrics, repeating the word ‘Chaos’ in a very commanding way. The actual song ends before the eight-minute mark, leading to the looping horrific sounds for the remainder eight-nine minutes. Hence the waste of time.

Overall, War of All Against All is a solid war metal record. I find it to be more death metal orientated to my likings, with the new material being significantly better than expected. Though it still has its flaws; like the shorter songs and that pointless last song. If that’s the direction the band takes; being more death metal orientated, especially with more death growls than shrieks, then I’m all for it. The best songs are Kingdom of Rats and Death Tyrant.