Monstrosity - Imperial Doom (1992)^{Release ID: 8558}

It's taken me a long time to finally get around to checking this band out. I'm a glad I did too as this is extremely solid, exciting death metal that recalls Vader and Morbid Angel. Death metal bands just don't sound like this anymore with all the overproduced, clinical yet stale sounding releases coming from every direction of late. This is dark and immense and filled with real power. It gets your blood pumping almost immediately and doesn't let go for the entire 9 tracks.

The riffs are very Altars of Madness period Morbid Angel at times, which can never be a bad thing, although I must admit that Immense Malignancy is awfully close to plagiarism. Check this track out and tell me it doesn't sound just like Maze of Torment! Anyway, Imperial Doom has a great, heavy sound that is immensely crushing while giving all the instruments room to breathe. Lee Harrison's drumming is excellent and there is a heap of blast beats throughout without ever overdoing it. And then of course, there's George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher's vocals. No wonder Cannibal Corpse pinched him to replace Chris Barnes in the mid-nineties. This guy can growl with the best of them and still manages to be reasonably intelligible. His instantly recognisable screams are used more sparingly in this band which I think makes them more effective.

All up I'm really impressed with Imperial Doom, but I can't rate it anything above 4, simply due to it not really breaking any new ground. It's just solidly written, well executed death metal that hits the spot right on the mark. I can't really pick highlights on this one as every track is of equal quality.