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MEPHISTO “Metal of Death” (CD, Bestial Burst Records 2005)
Blast from the Past! First you could imagine, that “Metal of Death” has been put on tape about in the middle of eighties, but the cover sheet tells you that studio sessions have taken their place in 2004 and 2005.
Well, the truth is that Italian Mephisto is pure old school, and on this album you can taste the true feeling of Metal!
The band started in 2003 as a side project, and I guess the band didn’t waste much time for seeking what kind of music they want to play. These five demons have loaded twelve songs on “Metal of Death”, and everyone is like taken from the time, when vinyl was the king, leather and denim only choices for clothes, spikes and chains everyday customs and Venom, Hellhammer and Sodom the elite of brutal metal. These midtempoish and rocking songs don’t have any false gimmicks, but they drill their way to
listeners’ brains with simple structures. Some horror-inspired lead
guitars bring some spice to this cauldron, and also the vocals of singer Manth are splendid with his Italian accent.
Of course you can have many opinions about the greatness of this album. That concept of those three legends mentioned before is so simple and good, that usually every band making their music like them sounds automatically good, although in most cases the time gnaws quickly out the empty nature of the music.
However, Mephisto has managed to create the
true rocking, rolling, insane attitude, what you need in music like this. Sadly there isn’t any true hit songs on “Metal of Death” – Lemmy-inspired “Iron Cross” gets close – and you could have shortened the album a bit, but otherwise “Metal of Death” has the right vibe including great sounds and nice, chaotic playing.
This is authentic worshipping of Metal, so Tom G. Warrior – who has trying to make a comeback for years – should take
some notes from this band.
8,5 / 10
Antti Klemi
