Makeshift Altars

Just in time for spooky season, Greek Lovecraftian lecturers weave a dreadful tale as old as time and space.     Brace yourselves for something absolutely shocking: everything on this record has been done before, much in the way that any chord progressions in modern pop music have already been done before. But the real important question is, have all these elements and influences been packaged together in this way before? I think not, and this is what sets Prometheus apart from their peers in both the death metal and black metal spheres. After all, who else is bridging this astronomical gap between the two genres with such panache?     When you take either Resonant Echoes From Cosmos of Old or Consumed in Flames (the group’s first outing) at even a casual listen, both the death and black metal influences are obvious: a helping of Nile, a dash of Emperor, two pinches of Immortal, and deglaze the pan with some Morbid Angel. But it’s how all these element...

The Welsh death metal giants attempt to reinvent the wheels on their sonic war machine.     Let’s just get this out of the way first: I have been absolutely thrilled with everything Venom Prison have put out thus far, and I’m going to try not to gush, but that being said, I’m also not going to promise anything because this group seems to knock it out of the park with every single release. Though their sound has matured through the years (hence this rerelease of newly recorded old material plus two new tracks) I have never found anything to dislike about the band’s direction, whether artistically or sonically. And I feel I can tell you, dear reader, that this compilation album is no exception.     My first exposure to the band came with their first full-length, Animus , which had a lot to say for a group so newly-formed (although still hot on the heels of two prior EPs). The album came screaming onto the scene with a very raw but well-articulated sound, ...