Celebration of Supreme Evil

Murder Rape got a decent start with their demo. Presenting material that was saturated with atmosphere due to a gritty production, the right amount of building properties, and abstract additions. While this release would attempt to maintain some of their past ways, it lacks the same starting point they had prior and honestly feels like it regressed with ideas than moved forward with them.

For those unfamiliar with the band, they wear the corpse paint, funeral garb, and spout evil obscenities like some other black metal bands did in the nineties. Though their pacing has more in common with doom and their song writing more in relation with death than the genre of bm. The vocals are for the most part deeply growled and for the majority monotone like you would hear in a typical '90's death metal album. Although the lyrics are about as upfront about their evil leanings as you can get. The guitars use chug frequently, though not just to pick up the moment to add a simplistic head-bangable section, but quite often as a main riff and come across as feeling straightforward and lacking direction. It can resemble at times a throwaway Deicide muscle riff. I prefer the sections where the guitarist will reach further down into his abilities' toolbox beyond attempting to go for the biggest/easiest tool to become heavy, because to me it feels literally like plumping...duumping...muuuumptin...zzz...plodding in a I-can't-wait-till-it's-over kind of impatience. There are occasions where dual guitars will be used and definitely suit the band better, since some sections have rhythms that are less superior or worthwhile than two different riffs going at once here, essentially complimenting each other. And they need compliments where they can get them.

The drums at first listen were positively off sounding. They sound clunky, at points out of time, and a distraction to the rest of the music. It doesn't help that the production is loud and causes the drums to be very noticeable. There's more air and free roaming elbow-room than the demo for a comparison, so there's nothing to hide an instrument and you can concentrate on them more individually here as well. It seems to add salt to the wound that his bass drums are triggered and his ability is less than precise, so when he's off it's extra apparent.

'Cries From the Abyss' uses an electric and acoustic guitar playing on their own for at least half of the song. The electric produces a lead and the acoustic represents the rhythm and seems to enclose the background with reverb levels cranked out. Man, the electric guitar shows promise here, and this little mid-tro isn't bad, but I wish some of these riffs were used where the drums and vocals chimed in instead. The rest of the song starts in with the chugging rhythm guitar and fortunately a lead guitar that creates some versatility for the remainder of the song. 'Goat Worshippers' breaks in with a simplistic strummed guitar line on its own with the vocals coming in to say a few words and the music going back to the straightforward basics. It is strange that in both cases of the songs 'Cries' and 'Goat' that when the rest of the music isn't playing the guitarist uses some of his more unique riffs. It's definitely a head scratcher. The riff on the beginning of 'Trace of Omnipotence' is something that stands out from the pack. It uses higher stringed arrangements with the bass following audibly, and comes across as reasonably different and a little "surprise" where the band needs more of them. 'Embassy of Satan,' other than the drums, is worthwhile for a steadily paced song, with keyboards chiming in even for a solo, and the song actually sounds fairly Greek inspired for that time period. 'Morbid Desires' is a re-do from their demo tape and sounds fairly close to the original with a few renditions, even with that particular false-start thrash riff and a slower tempo for the majority.

Murder Rape uses keyboards for the intro to build mood and on the outro to conclude the album instead of just ending with general music. They even have a few portions where it is shortly played but fitting. Though it's like washing down bad food with a good drink, the overall distaste keeps pulling you away from other points that might of been good with the experience. Overall, that's something of how I feel about 'Celebration of Supreme Evil,' that you might have certain good aspects pop up here and there, but it's not as if I'm willing to go pull this out to play 'DJ' and sample this or that, it wouldn't be worth it due to its up-and-down, shifty song writing. It was essentially a back step for the group for where they could have gone, too. And I can see what they were attempting, but the juice wasn't running, the flow clogged, the end result only partially useable. The next album improves on areas from where this fell behind and makes 'Celebration of Supreme Evil' seem like is was a lapse.