Review by Daniel for Monstrosity - Imperial Doom (1992)

I was lucky enough to come across Florida death metallers Monstrosity very early on in their recording career with their 1992 debut album "Imperial Doom" making a significant impact on me during the early 1990's. I believe I discovered them through the inclusion of their video clip for "Final Cremation" on the Nuclear Blast video compilation "Death... Is Just the Beginning" & was impressed enough to want to chase down their full-length as soon as it was released. "Imperial Doom" would go on to become quite influential on me & my own band Neuropath & I've subsequently followed Monstrosity through the rest of their career. I've always thought of them as one of the leaders of the second tier in the death metal hierarchy to be honest with "Imperial Doom" being one of their stronger releases. Let's take a deeper look at the album & what it brought to the table.

"Imperial Doom" showcases the maturity of the early 1990's death metal scene very well with new bands now being influenced by genuine death metal releases rather than classic 80's thrash records. It offers quite a sophisticated sound for such a young band but doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, instead making a confident play at existing ideas & concepts. The Dan Seagrave cover art is attractive enough to draw your interest (although I'd argue that its pinkish tones don't sit amongst his finest work) while the Morrisound Studios production job of Jim Morris presents the band in a highly professional packaging. One thing you'll pick up upon very early on in is that Monstrosity were a serious metal band too. They all clearly knew their way around their chosen instruments & obviously weren't looking to become the next flash in the pan. On the evidence here, they weren't likely to become that either as "Imperial Doom" is a classy affair that's very much a celebration of the death metal genre made by death metal fanatics specifically for a death metal fanbase so I think it's fair to say that a record like this one was always gonna appeal to me personally. I guess I can simply relate to Monstrosity on a deeper level because they so clearly share my early influences & grew up listening to the same records as I did with Morbid Angel's "Altars of Madness", Malevolent Creation's "The Ten Commandments" & the Cannibal Corpse's "Eaten Back To Life" all being clear sources of inspiration.

"Imperial Doom" is a conventional death metal record that presents the listener with everything they'd normally expect from a Florida release. The drumming of Lee Harrison (Hellwitch/Malevolent Creation/Terrorizer) is capable without ever feeling clinical. His blast-beat techniques were very clearly influenced by Morbid Angel's Pete Sandoval although he doesn't over-use them, instead preferring to draw upon them to in order to add impact at key moments which works really well. The basslines of Mark Van Erp (Cynic/Malevolent Creation/Solstice) are easily identifiable in the mix & showcase a level of musicality that's not all that common in this style of music while the riffs & solos of guitarists Jon Rubin (Malevolent Creation) & Jason Gobel (Cynic/Gordian Knot/Portal) all exude a level of sophistication & understanding that's quite surprising for a debut release of the time. But I'm sure it'll come as no surprise that it's current Cannibal Corpse vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher (Corpsegrinder/Paths of Possession/Serpentine Dominion) that steals the show with his ultra-masculine delivery being very much the epitome of the death metal front man. In fact, I'd suggest that George comes off as being a little less one-dimensional here with his stock tone being a touch less blunt & bludgeoning as well as slightly more deathly. He tosses in his signature higher pitched screams at times & they generally work very well too so I'd suggest that he really kinda drives Monstrosity through their first studio outing with a no-fuss attitude that simply gets it done in an efficient & highly presentable fashion.

The nine-song tracklisting is completely without blemish, kicking off with one of the stronger & more brutal inclusions in the impressive title track. It's closely followed by possibly the weakest number on the album in "Definitive Inquisition" but it's not a bad track as such & things pick up significantly from there. The other highlights are "Ceremonial Void" (which featured on Nuclear Blast's "Death ... Is Just the Beginning II" compilation CD at around this time) & the more controlled & atmospheric closer "Darkest Dream" which is my personal favourite but is strangely overlooked by most fans, perhaps because it's the slowest inclusion on the album. The rest of the songs are all very solid examples of early 90's Florida death metal that can hold their own against all but the most elite artists in the genre but I think that "Imperial Doom" might have needed a couple more genuine classics in order to have me reaching for my more premium ratings. There's no doubt that it was a very solid effort for a debut record though & I can't see too many Cannibal Corpse, Malevolent Creation or Sinister fans not lapping it up. Monstrosity's next couple of albums were also excellent & the trio of releases combine to represent Monstrosity's peak period. While I may see "Imperial Doom" may be the weaker of the three after this revisit, it's only by a small margin with 1996's "Millennium" perhaps being my preferred Monstrosity album these days.

P.S. This revisit has left me wondering whether George might have copped the odd light-hearted jab from his Cannibal Corpse band mates once he joined the band because there are many clear references to "Eaten Back To Life" to be found on "Imperial Doom" with a couple bordering on plagiarism. Admittedly, "Imperial Doom" is a much stronger record though.