Death Metal, Metal

Mephistophelian – Anotos (Recommendation)

Band:Mephistophelian
Album:Anotos
Genre:Death Metal
Country:Slovenia
Release Date:4th of September, 2020
Released viaSelf-Released
Cover Artwork ©Mephistophelian, 2020


Let’s start with the facts: Mephistophelian is a Death Metal supergroup consisting of past and current members of Within Destruction, Mordenom, Sarcom and the drummer Romain Goulon who is well known in the scene for his work with Benighted, Khaoten, Sadist, Disavowed, Necrophagist, Spheric Universe Existence, Spectral or Arsebreed just to name a few. Those names should give you a rough direction where this record is going. And it’s going all the right directions if you ask me! If something was to describe it briefly, then brutal and relentless, highly technical and very well written would be the choice of words. No wonder if you look at those names, right? Some of the guitar riffs are slamming heavy, some are over the top fast, almost hectic at times but they are always controlled and definitely what the band want them to sound like.

Control is a good term by the way. I think it’s incredibly hard to control yourself if you play this fast on such a high level. Also, something many bands lose in my opinion if they play this kind of Technical Death Metal is groove… I am an absolute fool for groove and I am sure many of you are too! Responsible for a huge portion of that groove on Anotos is Romain, the drummer. While those drums are mostly crazily fast, he really knows when to drop it and slow down a bit. Just enough to take away from the relentlessness that really is characteristic for this record, make the listener groove along for a few seconds and penetrate the double bass and snares hard again.

The vocalist is really good as well, reminds me a little of John Gallagher from Dying Fetus or Mario Petrović from Deadborn. Overall I would say if Technical Death Metal or Brutal Death Metal sounds good to you, this here is a must, it’s really one of 2020s best in the genre. Fans of Cytotoxin, Dying Fetus, Abysmal Torment, Deadborn or Aborted should be all over it. Enjoy Mephistophelian!

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