Impiety - Ravage & Conquer

Impiety were one of the first of those brutal blackened death bands, way back in the early 90s, but they hailed from far off Singapore. Over the last twenty years the group has turned out an adequately prolific discography, this being their eighth full length in addition to a number of splits and EPs, but where have they gone with their sound? Debut was a fairly raw yet brutal black metal album, but it was the sophomore release that set their style and they have pushed on in almost exactly the same vein ever since, riffs increasing in complexity as the band’s technical skills grew, but always following the same formula: Super-fast, ripping war metal that never lets down. Last year with their Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny the band detoured into progressive territory, a one song, nearly forty-minute sprawling epic of barbarism. Although there was little attention paid to detail and songwriting was as heavy-handed as it’s always been, this was the record that piqued my interest the most over the course of their career, but on Ravage & Conquer, the band returns to its tried and true (boring) ways.

Production is better than ever on this record; guitar tone razor sharp and drums cut beautifully through the onslaught of savagery. This is a double-edged sword because the guitar solos squeal far too clearly and cleanly for such an aggressive musical attack. In fact, lead guitars only succeed to fit in one time on Weaponized. Despite changing guitarists many times, poor old Impiety have never managed to secure a decent soloist that would complete their image of hateful blasphemy, although personally I’d be wary using any guitar solos when trying to make truly demonic music. This is the most technical offering of Impiety’s so far and I will give them credit for achieving some mesmerizing tremolo death metal riffage, but in the end I have to say I’m disappointed that Impiety haven’t continued to experiment with structure and bring more black metal into their sound as on the previous album, something they can do quite well. Instead, R&C suffers from Impiety’s era-old vice of never actually going anywhere, starting at exactly the same point it finishes on and remaining at that one point for all moments in between, a meaningless stringing together of riffs that could have been taken from any other influential death metal band.

In short: Impiety have taken a step back into their comfort zone. If you can’t get enough of their style then you’ll like this, but I found it challenged only my boredom, being a records that stands on its own two legs but stands straight down the line without even considering other avenues, a weary task for the listener who’s been hearing it for nearly twenty years (and not just from this band).

Standout tracks: War Crowned, Weaponized

Score: 4.5