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If I really wanted to make this easy on myself, I’d
describe The Reign of Darkness, the latest by British
death metal band Annotations of an Autopsy, in one word: brutal.
And that is most certainly a compliment. The riffs and drums
are big and bludgeoning. Vocalist Steve Regan’s death
growls could give Corpsegrinder Fisher and Chris Barnes a
run for their money, even though it sometimes sounds like
he recorded them underwater. The album never lacks on stuff
to swing your heavy metal hair to. And the song titles are
freaking awesome: “In Snakes I Bathe,” “Born
Dead,” “Catastrophic Hybridization,” “Impale
the Sun” and “Into the Black Slumber.”
Still, there doesn’t seem to be anything that stands
out. I hesitate to say generic because there are some flourishes,
like the higher-pitched vocals on “Portrait of Souls,”
that stand out. But for the most part, the album just does
what it's supposed to do and not much more. It’s good
on its own merits, but I finished listening wanting a little
more, like, for example, the audio clips before “Cryogenica”
or the gloomy atmospherics of “Into the Black Slumber.”
The latter sounds like something Behemoth would do.
With that said, there’s not enough of those kinds of
moments on the record. That makes The Reign of Darkness
a solid, but ultimately unspectacular listen.
®2010 Live-Metal.net
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