Logic of Denial (IT) - Atonement (2013)

Country: Italy
Released on: Comatose Music

Tracklist:

1. Reek of Perpetual Infamy 03:15
2. Weeping upon Repugnance 04:00
3. Behold the Throne of Torture 03:11
4. Vile Blessing Prelude 03:20
5. The Ravenous Patterns (of Oblivion) 02:52
6. Sepsis 03:56
7. Catharsis Through Ungodly Annihilation 03:40
8. Apocrypha 03:25
9. Oracles of Iniquity 03:27
10. Ecthra 04:27
11. Despondency 04:35
40:08

Let’s start the Italian week with Logic of Denial’s new album called Atonement. I don’t know if the Italians are the master race, or why all of their their BDM/DM bands are so brilliant. And Logic of Denial are no exception.
Their new effort is technical, fast, orthodox and brutal as hell. In the tradition of other Italian Death Metal bands they combine extreme musical brilliance, supreme song-writing, excellent vocal work and a totally harmonic mixture of traditional Death Metal with the more modern Brutal Death Metal approach, intensity and extreme speed, forging everything together what makes BDM/DM great. This for me has always been the reason why I consider Italian bands the absolute elite of today’s global BDM/DM scene.
The album starts with a quick fade in that regorges into a furious and powerful blast orgy right away. This is the way you start an album and this reminded me again on how much intros suck. The sound is gorgeous. The incredible drum work is so tight and sounds just so organic, leaving me with an excited smile. The stamina of this guy must be immense. The riffing is a perfect harmony between technical and extremely well written structures and pounding mid tempo intermezzos, loosened up by an insane solo from time to time. The dynamic and the intensity of this album are just gorgeous and it’s such a pleasure to listen to this piece of art. Some playful moments remind me a bit of a brutalized version of the late Behemoth, but they are suddenly cut off by another blast attack. What’s happening on this record is just grand. The vocals are just so massive, so intense, absolutely furious and dripping with wrath. The sheer speed of the music is a festival of extremity, pushing Death Metal to the limits again, where it belongs.


This record makes me smile. I love how new and old styles join together, how intense it is, how brutal and fast it is, how extremely good the song writing is. This is Italian BDM/DM in its purest and best form. A huge step for Logic of Denial.

95%

Concerning BDM: Less fashion, more passion

I want to start with a little anecdote. I was on a festival some years ago and wore some skate shoes, basketball shorts, a flex fit cap and an Endstille shirt (a German Black Metal band). I have always worn pretty ‘normal’ clothing, some kind of skateboarding style if anything. As I walked across the camping site, some ultra-true Metal fan (the long haired fat dude in a leather jacket kind of fan) shouted “Hey, you fucking Hip Hop fag!” It’s not that this hurt my feelings or anything, but I think this shows very well the typical attitude of most Metal fans.
Now, when I first entered the Death Metal scene and especially the Brutal Death Metal scene I thought that it was a very mature and relaxed scene. The discrepancy between the mostly very extreme imagery and lyrical content and the attitude of the people on the other hand is remarkable. Compared to other Metal scenes, such as the Heavy, Pagan or Black Metal scene etc., BDM people are mostly pretty ‘normal’ and don’t take everything that seriously (except the music itself of course). There aren’t a lot of posers, wannabes or people alike in the scene. People don’t really care too much about what you wear or other superficial things. Or do they?
Although people in this scene are in fact mostly pretty easygoing dudes, there are regularly things people say, that extremely annoy me. One time some people bitch about Pathology being on Victory Records (a hardcore label) and the label magically turns music into ‘core’ (whatever that is). Or when Acranius members wear contemporary clothing they become gay. The other day it’s Devourment not releasing another MTD and offering baseball caps as merchandise (and by that becoming ‘deathcorish’, needless to say). Or bands becoming extremely overrated, because they have a girl on the mic, or people hate other styles of music (Deathcore, Justin Bieber etc.) and put a huge effort into being extremely childish and irrational. This is a bad and petty attitude.
I always thought that the BDM scene was full of grown up and mature people, but that is at least not true for all. Still people are way too superficial, care a lot about the ‘trveness’ of the image and the fashion around the music and act as if they were the most elite BDM fans. But mostly they are just immature and silly. Of course there are a lot of traditions in the culture of Death Metal and most are important for the authenticity of the music and everything around it, but things like clothing are not amongst them.
What people should care about most is the quality of the music and the love for a great genre. Less fashion, more passion.