I’m not sure why Metal Blade/Ironclad would release the debut from Buffalo’s Sons Of Azrael only a month or so before The Black Dahlia Murder’s Nocturnal drops, because its liable to steal some of Nocturnal’s thunder.

Basically Sons of Azrael ply a form of modern sort of At The Gates based, death//black core that has a heavy and overly obvious The Black Dahlia Murder influence (circa Unhallowed), but also has some of the death metal brutality and lyrical approach of Through the Eyes of the Dead or The Absence without being too core-ish or breakdown reliant. Sure, the formula is pretty redundant, but to their credit, Sons of Azrael pull this debut off with a ferocity and tenacity that’s pretty impressive.

The 10 (except for “The Conjuration of Destruction”) no nonsense tracks blaze by with little care for any sort of fluff, but do manage to include a few impressive, almost Stockholm styled slowdowns such as “Scent of a Dead Whore”, “Sweet Blasphemy” and the huge track “5.5.97”, but pretty much tracks like “The Wrath”, “Mortal Human Form”, “End of the Rope” and blistering “Turn that Crown Upside Down”, blow by in a pretty vicious ball of seething tightness that’s hard to ignore despite the saturation of the genre. Also, the band’s tightness from having released four actual demos rather than 3 myspace tracks shows and while the black metal rasp mixed with the deeper ( though reee-less) growls of Jospeh Siracuse have been done to death as well as the fact there are what some could construe as ‘breakdowns’ involved, but on the whole the fierce delivery takes the front seat.

The fact the band was recently not allowed to perform at a recent show due to the bands offense songs and merchandise, will garner the band some notoriety with the kids, but Sons of Azrael at least have the musical shops to back up that notoriety, with a little more creativity this lot could be an outfit to look out for, eschewing the usual niceness and friendly vibe of their peers prefer.

[Visit the band's website]

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