First of all be sure not to confuse the Spanish Proclamation
with the American Proclamation who play “Christian rock at a whole new level”. Proclamation
might’ve been a lot better in a different world, a different time. There is
certainly nothing concrete, nothing you can point at lacking from this newest
album, Nether Tombs of Abaddon. Their style is chaotic blackened death
metal, and if you go through the checklist, it’s difficult to see where
Proclamation fail. Dirty, under-produced guitars? Check. Battering blast beats?
Check. Ferocious demonic roars? Check. Anything a decent blackened death metal
band should have is there, it’s just that there’s nothing more. Both the riffs
and the primal energy created by the band are lost to the memory amongst better
bands.
I believe what Proclamation are trying to go for on this
album (their “take” on metal, so to speak) is a particular kind of careless
dirtiness about their blasting fury, or at least this is the only thing I can
see that gives the band any real sense of individual personality. This shade of
a sound to claim as one’s own is never going to be enough to pick up
Proclamation’s reputation, because, unfortunately, in the oversaturated metal
scene these days there’s a lot of strong black/death players, and in the end
there’s just no reason why you would go back to Proclamation when you could
listen to their contemporaries do the same thing better.
In short: This is pretty good music, it’s certainly filthy
enough, but it just doesn’t stand up when bands like Archgoat, Antediluvian and
Teitanblood are around.
Standout tracks: “Hatred Sacrament” had my favorite riff on
it
Score: 6.0
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