Review Summary: Easily their best album to date, excellent riffage, drumwork, and vocals. And it even has drumwork by the late Vitek from Decapitated!
I'll keep this short, sweet, and to the point.
While many people out there arent aware of the existence of this band, these guys have been tearing it up for some time now. (Not recently of course, in honor of Vitek - RIP)
While their other works "Immolated", and "The Sin War" are both reputable albums in their own right, "Sculpture of Stone" completely blew those 2 out of the perverbial water. Mainly in due part to late Decapitated drummer virtuoso Vitek's contribution to the drumwork on the album. Making the overall sound of "Sculpture of Stone" become much more solid and in-your-face.
As far as I have been able to gather, "Sculpture of Stone" is Dies Irae's latest and final work. Mostly out of sheer respect for the memory of Vitek's recent passing.
All in all, the musicianship is somewhat dry and empty, leaving a tad to be desired, knowing from first listen that this band has/had the capacity for MUCH more. But that aside, this is easily a worthwhile buy or download for fans of the genre, moreso for fans of bands like Decapitated, Hate, Meshuggah and the lot.
Catchy lyrical hooks, structured guitar work with a healthy dose of the Tech-Tapping and Palm-Muted Chord progressions now made famous by Meshuggah, The Faceless, Necrophagist, Obscura, etc....And of course intensely solid drumming made possible by VITEK.
Overrall a good listen.
4.5/5