Perpetual Demise - Arctic

Artist: Perpetual Demise
Release Title: Arctic
Year: 1996 (2016 reissue)
Label: DSFA Records (Vic Records reissue)
Genre: Doom/Death Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Of Confusion and Brutality
2. The Lord Paramount
3. Arctic
4. The Observer
5. Pyramids
6. Fall
7. Triangle Eye
8. The Tower
9. Upon Dark Grounds
10. On the Edge
11. Denial & Faith

Reissue tracklisting:
1. Of Confusion and Brutality
2. The Lord Paramount
3. Arctic
4. The Observer
5. Pyramids
6. Fall
7. Triangle Eye
8. The Tower
9. Upon Dark Grounds
10. On the Edge
11. Denial & Faith
12. Where the Ancients Remain
13. Cynical Control
14. Scarred by Silence
15. Awaiting the Unexpected
16. Conspiracy of Fear
17. Massacre to Be

Founded back in 1989, disbanded Dutch doom/death metal band Perpetual Demise quickly rose through the ranks of the underground on the strength of several strong demos and finally got their debut release out before ultimately disbanding. Having gotten to the last stage of their set-up, the groups’ sole full-length album was originally released in 1996 before getting a remastered reissue with bonus tracks November 25, 2016 on Vic Records.

This here manages to come off rather nicely in being quite an impressive and frankly engaging aspect of merging old-school influenced doom and death metal. The riff-work here is the greatest aspect of this one, managing to keep this one going along quite nicely with plenty of tight, churning patterns here recalling the type of death metal elements prominent at the time while still maintaining the kind of backbone required to gallop along at a few rather random spots with the uptempo rhythms and plenty of pounding rhythms blaring away, yet the vast majority of this one still carries with it ravenous doom metal characteristics in the plodding, sprawling tempos and addictive atmosphere. Given that this is furthered augmented by the use of clean vocals during a few select passages to further enhance the melodic quotient of the material throughout here, and overall this one manages to contain quite a varied and wholly appreciative cross-section here with the variety. The main problem with all this though is that there’s not a great deal of interesting work done here as the album generally resorts to rather repetitive means here to generate the vast majority of its death metal leanings by carrying on the same style of churning patterns throughout here for the duration of those segments. This leaves the album feeling really familiar by the time it’s over by going through the same overly-familiar rhythms and feelings here which is only enhanced by the rather curious decision to include the stuttering melodic rhythms throughout here which are wholly out-of-place and just sound like discordant clanging without any definitive direction. These here tend to drag the score of this one down.

Though this may very well be the definite version of this release due to the greater artwork, the enhanced sound, and spectacular bonus tracks, the fact that the music, on the whole, doesn’t really stand out a great deal overall here makes this one solely for the most devout and hardcore followers of Dutch death metal or doom/death metal in general.

Score: 78/100

Does it sound good? Order the reissue here:
http://www.hrrshop.de/PERPETUAL-DEMISE-Artic-CD_1