(Old School Death Metal) Serpent Ascending - The Enigma Unsettled - 2011, MP3, 320 kbps

Это группа одного человека, основана Jarno Nurmi в 2008 году.

Вот две статьи об этом альбоме:
"A subtext of unquestionable evil"
One of the first things that struck me in listening through Serpent Ascending's debut album is just how closely they live up to their name. Seriously, each time I closed my eyes while experiencing the band's old school, evil riffing gestures I was granted a vision of some snaking maneuver up some evil, pagan column of stone or a naked and terrified human sacrifice. The Finns have an ample supply of despotism and diabolical atmosphere without needing to foist any excess reverb or production tricks upon its audience. What you have is pure, unadulterated, raw death metal in its most primal, 90s form, with equal influence from the late 80s scenes of Florida and Sweden, in addition to a hint of Incantation and the Finnish forefathers you'd expect (Convulse, Demigod, and so forth).
Lot of low end, grim aesthetics being conjured up straight through the guitars and the ceaseless hammering of the double bass, and the 'climbing evil' motif is enforced through tracks like "The Human Ladders" or the slower, creeping pair of tunes dubbed "The Mournful Pilgrimage", one of which sets up the album's pacing. The vocals are brute and blunt, and admittedly they can grow monotonous, but for those seeking their fix of Onward to Golgotha, they're not so shabby. What's more, Serpent Ascending glaze their morbid ministrations with these atmospheric, elegant and minimalist lead sequences in the amazingly haunting molasses of "Saturnal", or the more complex and varied closer "Endless Initiations". But let me not mislead you into thinking that the album is all sloth, they have an upbeat side to them which emerges in the more heavily thrashing rhythms of "Serpent Ascending" itself, or "The Enigma Unsettled".
Unfortunately, there is a slight lack of inconsistency here, with some of the cruder tracks like "The Entwinement" bringing up the qualitative rear, even if they themselves have a strong notion of internal atmosphere. I could go on listening to "Saturnal", "The Enigma Unsettled" and "Endless Initiations" repeatedly. They are some of the stronger old school numbers I've heard of this sort in recent years, and should be mentioned alongside bands like Sonne Adam or Father Befouled as an example of how to do this all correctly. But ultimately there are some less savory moments where I felt I was nodding off, and the vocals don't really peak my interest outside of their grisly, broad authenticity for the genre. Still, with the wave of atmospheric retro death metal considering to gain in popularity, the timing could not be more perfect for such a debut effort, and Serpent Ascending are likely to thrill the newcomers to the niche, or provide manny (un)happy returns for the veterans who seek sincerity amidst the grinding miasma.
"The world is pierced! Hail Satan!"
This is some pretty good death/thrash metal. I'm not usually a fan of old-school worship bands, but Serpent Ascending's first demo is pretty good. It's the one-man project of Jarno Nurmi, who has also played bass in some pretty successful death metal bands like Slugathor and Nerlich. Here he plays a mix of old-school death metal (from around '91-'93) and 80s heavy/thrash metal. It's fairly pedestrian compared to the death metal I normally enjoy, but it works because the songwriting is good, the playing is tight and the production is strong.
The focus is on atmosphere, with strong leads dominating the songs. It's not really very brutal music and the style of writing is pretty "normal", as in there's not much twisted death metal weirdness, it's very traditional sounding. It doesn't really remind me of any other Finnish bands as it's not quite as weird as Demilich or Adramalech or some of the other old classics. But it's good nonetheless, and its difficult to pick out a standout track as they're all good. It's nice and short at just four songs, and I'd be interested to see where Jarno would take this when composing a full length.
Definitely an interesting demo for people into old- school death metal, and it would probably appeal to them more than me so take that as a recommendation, and a suggestion to keep an eye on Serpent Ascending in future.
Recorded and mixed by Tommi Grönqvist and Jarno Nurmi. All songs by Jarno Nurmi.
Cat. #: IVR-007
От себя:
Треки с 6 по 9 взяты группой из своего демо "Serpent Ascending" 2009 года.)

Jarno Nurmi: Everything.
Он также выступал раньше в группах: Desecresy, Nowen, ex-Slugathor (live), ex-Night Must Fall, ex-Nerlich