Meyhna'ch may appear to be rotting on the cover of this, but the music inside proves that the beast that is Mütiilation is still very much alive. Stylistically this picks up where Black Millennium left off, continuing in the faster, more harsh vein they started down with that earlier work. I think this new album finds Meyhna'ch more comfortable in this style, as the songs just seem more focused, more sinister and vile. Three of the tracks here are re-recordings of songs done since the last album ("Destroy Your Life for Satan" and "The Ugliness Inside" from the DYLFS demotape and "Beyond the Decay of Time and Flies" from their split with Deathspell Omega), so if you have any of those intermediate releases you have a somewhat good idea what to expect. The production is much more effective this time around, though, with a slightly meatier guitar sound and MUCH more roubst bass tone pushed pretty far up in the mix. The vocals continue more in the croaking style Meyhna'ch has been using of late and fit well with this thrashier incarnation of the band. High points are the opener "Tormenting My Nights", the aforementioned redux of "Destroy Your Life for Satan", and the positively sinister closing song "If Those Walls Could Speak". Highly recommended.

© 2003 lord vic