Review Summary: Harsh Swedish melodic-death with a cool comic book concept in the linear notes to boot!
By: Eric Smith (www.thrashpit.com)
This band has been relatively unknown to me until recently. As Thrashpit's resident Europhile, I had no choice but to submit to my own weakness for melodic death metal and review this album.
I am thankful for my weakness!
Impious is melodic death metal along the lines of At the Gates mixed with, say, Carnal Forge. There is more of an emphasis on brutality with Impious, though whilst not getting rid of the melodic aspects in the least. But do not fool yourself; these guys have sort of a Slayer-type violent aspect to them. There are no clean vocals, no symphonies. Just straight-up melodic death that goes for the jugular and rips it to shreds.
One of the coolest things about this record is the fact that the liner notes/lyric booklet is a comic book that stylizes the violence that takes place in the lyrics. It is your standard serial killer affair, but the concept is done in such a cool way that I hope some other bands will follow suit with it one day.
The music itself, while being quite brutal and fist-pumping at times, brings essentially nothing new to the table and is your standard Gothenburg melodic death affair. However, I will say that it is better than most recent Gothenburg-esque releases recently, such as This Ending's debut album Inside the Machine.
My final report on the new Impious is this: If you like good melodic death metal that is more brutal than it is introspective, than the new Impious record is a good choice for you; however, some Gothenburg fans that are looking for an evolution in the genre will be disappointed by their new outing.
