Sin of God - Aenigmata

Artist: Sin of God
Release Title: Aenigmata
Year: 2016
Label: Satanath Records/Murdher Records (co-release)
Genre: Old-School Death Metal
Tracklisting:
1. The Emerald Tablet
2. Phosphorus
3. Ignis Infernalis... Illuminate Us
4. Loss Leads into Impiety
5. Aenigmata
6. Altered States of Chaos
7. Deus Metamorphosis
8. The Great Lion Devours the Sun
9. The Human Worm

Taking their sound to it’s fullest extent, Hungarian old-school death metallers Sin of God have fully explored their devastating blend of traditional old-school death metal and a more technically-challenging grind to become one of the fiercest groups in their homeland. Now after four years of intense touring that has taken their work to a new level, the group prepares it’s second full-length effort September 23, 2016 on a co-release with Satanath Records and Murdher Records.

Carrying on from their previous releases, the group’s main attack here is a predominantly old-school approach that brings about the hard-charging chugging characterized by the US scene with a slew of ravenous, deep swirling riff-work that effectively evokes the churning atmosphere found there. As the tight, densely-packed riffing is given a rather blistering tone here with the full-tempo series of pounding drum-blasts and the charged, fiery technical riffing packed into it that manages to bring about the dynamic intensity along through the rhythms. The way this changes up between the tight, frantic and utterly blistering rhythms while still maintaining a strong, ominous mid-tempo lurch along throughout the tracks here while still managing that heavy, vicious energy is where this one really scores incredibly well here by offering up the burning technicality that charges along while still keeping the old-school tones present in utterly dominating fashion as the variety here is incredibly dynamic and manages to give this such a dynamic charge that there’s very little about the bands’ attack to dislike overall. The only issue that crops up within this one is the fact that the album’s got a remarkably low tone in which the guitars are recorded in, and though it’s dynamic, tight and crunchy there’s places where it tends to turn into a rather indecipherable blur of heavy buzzing rhythms that doesn’t become a detriment but is somewhat distracting with the way it causes them to come off. Still, there’s little else about this release to really cause an issue with.

Frankly this turned out to be quite the impressive and wholly dynamic offering that brings about many great positives and not a whole lot of issues here which are mostly just brought up by the production rather than any part of the music itself which really makes this such an intriguing choice for fans of old-school technical death metal or just old-school death in general.

Score: 95/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat158-sin-of-god-aenigmata-2016

Wisdom (Hung) - Rise of the Wise

Artist: Wisdom (Hung)
Release Title: Rise of the Wise
Year: 2016
Label: NoiseArt Records
Genre: Power/Heavy Metal
Tracklisting:
1. Over the Wall
2. Ravens' Night
3. My Heart Is Alive
4. Hunting the Night
5. Hero
6. Through the Fire
7. Nightmare of the Seas
8. Believe in Me
9. Secret Life
10. Welcome to My Story
11. Rise of the Wise

Built up as the country’s greatest genre act, Hungarian heavy/power metallers Wisdom are without doubt one of the best genre acts in that part of the world as well as their country’s premier act as well. With Anton Kabanen joining on guitars, the group’s fourth full-length effort released February 26, 2016 on NoiseArt Records firmly showcases this feat with the fact at the top of their game.

This here is such an infectious and utterly enjoyable effort that there’s plenty of enjoyable elements found within this one that really shows off how enjoyable their sound is. The main impetus here is on fiery, bright melodies within the riffing that showcases the dynamic power of melodic power metal while running alongside the tight, thunderous crunch of traditional heavy metal and is made all the better with the album’s infectious energy. That alone here is one of the most impressive elements to be found here as the album stays within this framework for the most part and doesn’t really offer up much deviation at all which is what allows this one to keep the steady pounding rhythms featured here at the forefront as there’s a rather large amount of stylish tempos and arrangements here that come from the deeper rhythm section charging away while the band fires off their melodic power metal firestorm and more uplifting tempos that have a much greater and enjoyable charge throughout here which is what makes the group so lively yet still heavy enough here even on the ballads. At times the bands’ approach drops off unexpectedly into a rather bland mid-tempo chug that sounds completely at odds with the victorious choruses and melodies which cause them to stick out against the much stronger crunchier riff-work that picks up the tempo nicely, but the band is confident enough to leave them in such short bursts that there’s a lot more elements to like here that dominate the album as a whole.

With a few small and relatively minor missteps that don’t really upset the album all that much, this one really does pick out the best parts of the bands’ sound and makes them enjoyable with their dominance on the album that this is surely one of the better entries in their catalog and is wholly recommended not only to fans of the band but of the style as well.

Score: 92/100

Does it sound good? Order it from here:
http://www.wisdom.hu/webshopeur.php#