For a tiny country that's pretty much all metropolis, Singapore bristles with an intensely respectable extreme metal scene - and has done so since Dead was alive. Oshiego's debut album Woe to the Conquered put another name on a list that includes such unbridled ferocity as Helvette and Blood Division, and that's just recent bands. This digital EP raises the band's stakes in dirty and ferocious death metal, and whether it is the mix, the songwriting or a certain evil atmosphere in the studio at the time of recording, The Heretic Priests of Amon takes absolutely no prisoners.

We got three songs here. Among the kind of majestic leads I've been given to expect by Woe to the Conquered, 'Blade of the Conqueror' erupts with a savage and barbaric force; the drums rattle as ex-Impiety man Fauzt rages away with blasting punishment and Morgan and Kadir craft a murky hell of razoring riffs. Despite the strange dead stop in the middle the track is among the most relentless the band have unleashed. I'm impressed that they've kept the character of their debut, while enhancing their level of battering brutality.

The recipe and effect is much the same with the title song, albeit with a more groaning, grooving carapace. It certainly makes them a good fit with Thailand's bestiality-dominated festivals when they come to tour. 'Legions of the Nemesis' starts out sounding pretty Swedish, but eventually fucks off into the land of harmonized riffs and some melodic swirls that somehow work very nicely in the violent context. Why not chuck in some kind of Slayer-style solo. Ah, they did. The songwriting is at a high standard here, I can't fault them for it, and the somewhat raw production is working nicely although I'm sure future full-length efforts will again feature a bit more of a chunky sheen.

One minor complaint but not quite complaint is the lack of Legacy of Kain inspired lyrics, but with songwriting like this I am compelled to be forgiving.

Let me start of by saying that I don't think this is the real Abruptum. The real Abruptum have: vocals, guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. (even though its questionable how good they handled their instruments) Well anyway, its the year 2014 now. Evil is the sole member of Abruptum since It has left the scene and now Evil has continued his reign of noise/ambient/whatever.

To put it simply, this is total trash. There is absolutely nothing good about this. It almost sounds like Evil recorded sounds from a highway and had it speeded up and later released it. There are some vocals but they are just a faint chanting, so you really cant hear it because of all the noise. All the songs sound the same and never really change.
While "Casus Luciferi" had some sort of "rhythm" in some of the songs, this has nothing of that. If anything, the whole album is somewhat akin to the track "Dödsapparaten" of the EP "De Profundis Mors Vas Cousumet" which was great if you wanted to become deaf.

Its not worth your time. It is total trash. Abruptum is dead for me. Abruptum should have been killed off after It left. If you want to buy or listen to anything that Abruptum has released, please listen to the album "Evil Genius" which actually have some good songs.

Avoid at all costs! [spoiler]

Yes - 100%

By now, you're probably already laughing. Why? You've seen the score I've given this album. It may seem insane that I would even be able to slightly justify giving this "mediocre" album a perfect score. Allow me to do my best to show you why this is truly amazing.

Blood Stain Child. A band widely known for Bodom-esque electronicy melodic death metal. This album marked their major shift in sound, to a style that would be dubbed as "trance metal". There are several issues that people have with this album that I would like to discuss here. First, and most blatantly obvious, are the vocals.

The vocals seem to be the most hated thing about this album. Why, you may ask? Because they're weird. Incredibly strange. I've never really heard anything quite like them, from any other band ever. There are several different styles of vocals on here as well, such as screaming, talking, higher clean male vocals, lower clean male vocals, and occasionally female vocals. Their style is inherently weird, and I feel that most people after hearing them decide to stop listening to the band at all. They just take some getting used to.

The screamer here has a very raw tone to his voice, that can be very rough, and not refined like many other unclean vocalists. There are times where I can definitely see why the sound of it makes people cringe, but I honestly love it. It matches the style of the music perfectly. However, it's the singing that really gets on most peoples' nerves. And to be honest, I used to hate the singing as well. Whenever I happened to be in a public place, and they're playing this really horrible pop with the worst singing I've ever heard, I used to make the comment, "Well, at least it's not as bad as the guy from Blood Stain Child." Since then, I've gotten used to his singing. And now I even love it. It is very Asian in tone (which is to be expected, as the band is from Japan), high-pitched at most times, and just sounds strange. But I've grown to love it. Occasionally, lower singing is introduced (Neo-Gothic-Romance), and this seems to be less weird, and more of a normal singing voice. Female vocals are rarely used, I can only think of a few occasions in the album, and they are usually electrified. And since this is trance metal, it makes sense, once again. It's just a bit too much for some people to digest.

The thing that I love most about the vocals is how funny they can be. It's fun to try to figure out what they're saying, as it's nearly impossible. This doesn't really matter, as the lyrics don't make sense to begin with (but I don't mind that). For example, in Freedom, the song frequently goes softer, guitars leave, and trance kicks in with some female vocals. After she mumbles something incoherent, the screamer comes in, and it sounds like he shouts, "IT'S A WOMAN!!!" What does he actually say? I could never tell you. But I do find it hilarious.

The electronics are the main gimmick of this album, and what makes it incredibly awesome. The popular comment to make here is, "The electronics sound cool, but the guitars don't accompany it well." That is the single most inaccurate thing ever said about this album. The guitars are wonderful. Just fantastic. Very energetic, fast, and with some of the most memorable riffage ever. They'll throw a trance break into the song, which is almost always followed by a soaring guitar solo, which always sends chills up my spine because it sounds so well-placed, and super effective. The most common comment about the guitars, to explain why people think they don't accompany the electronics well, is that they are "really terrible Gothenburg style." I don't understand this, in any way. I've listened to a lot of In Flames, and a bit of Dark Tranquility, and I don't hear the similarities here. If you look at The Jester Race, the guitarwork is mostly power metal-style, just with screaming over it. I'd say the guitars here are just a mix of standard melodic death with a bit of an industrial influence. Either way, the guitars are another contributing factor to this perfect piece of beauty.

Enough about why people hate the album. Here's why I adore it so much.

The electronics. Oh, the electronics! They're the original thing that led me to this album. They're almost always there, and usually the most prevalent during the soft breaks, and the intros and outros. They're what builds the energy and excitement of the album. This is always effective, everytime they try it. The quintessence of this is found at the very start of the album, the intro of Exotic-6-Cordinator. A rapid trance intro, with guitars to go in the background, a little intro scream, and BOOM. The album comes to a super fast start, with guitar riffs that make the listener feel invincible.

This is a nice segway into the best thing about the album. The mood, feeling, and atmosphere that surround this thing it unlike what I've heard any other band do. During the first half of the album, from Exotic-6-Cordinator to Another Dimension, I just feel energetic and invincible, thinking, "Aw yeah, this is great!" and just bouncing off the walls. After that, the album gets slower, and much much weirder, with Metropolice. This track shows a bit of the Asian influence in this album, with the inclusion of what sounds like a pan flute, and just strange female vocals. After that, the album just gets even weirder. C.E. 0079 isn't even a metal song. It's just entirely electronic, with the exception of the guitar solo. And I'll go as far as to call it my second favorite song on the album. It's super catchy throughout the entire thing, and has nice vocals thrown into the background the whole time. It also contains the best guitar solo in the entire album.

This structure of weirdness continues during the rest of the album (with one exception, which I'll get to in a bit). Most of these songs in the back half of the album contain trance breaks that are very lengthened compared to those in the first half, and also sound very different. It sounds like they're trying to pull you into some sort of alien world, because the mental images created here are just indescribable. It's some sort of incomparable mixture of science fiction and fantasy; something that no other band has ever done.

Allow me to relate the structure of this album to something that makes a bit more sense. Here's your analogy: a roller coaster. If you're horribly terrified by them, pretend you're not. Now, imagine you're waiting in line for this roller coaster, and rather than being nervous, you are super excited to ride it. Eventually you make it to the front, and you're strapping yourself in for the ride. Once you start going up the chain-up, that's like Exotic-6-Cordinator; it's super exciting. Once you get to the top, and begin going down, that's pretty much like the rest of the first half of the album. Now, after you're about halfway through the ride, and your brain is basically going insane, that's the second half of the album. Once you're pulling back into the station, and you're thinking, "Wow, that was my new favorite ride ever!", that's basically Neo-Gothic-Romance. Then you look to your right, to see that there's strangely nobody else standing in line. The staff running the ride inform you that you can ride it again, right away, without having to wait. You become even more excited and even more overjoyed than you were before. This is the bonus track on the American and European versions of the album, called Cosmic Highway.

There are a few more songs that I'd like to single out and talk about before wrapping up this review. Cosmic Highway, the aforementioned bonus track, is much faster than the rest of the songs on the album, and despite being placed last, it is more akin to the beginning of the album rather than the end. This is the exception that I referred to earlier. What it does do is bring the album to a wonderful close. Fast, super energetic, crushing guitar riffs, speedy trance, catchy vocals, and then it's over. When I finished listening to the album, I just kind of sat there, in astonishment, thinking, "Wow...this is truly amazing." It may sound like I'm trying to promote this as the single greatest album ever released, but it isn't. There is one album that I like more, however, it is not on The Archives, so I will not mention it here.

The other song I wish to mention is Peacemaker, which I deem as the best song on the album. This is during the weird part of the album, towards the end, right before Neo-Gothic-Romance. This song contains the best guitarwork of the whole album. A killer solo, amazing verses, just chugging along, faster, faster, faster... The vocals on this song are also stellar, the singing parts being incredibly memorable, and just very fun to listen to.

This album truly is the perfected form of music. I cannot think of anything that I would ever change about it.