Metal Blade Records is picking up steam these days, putting themselves back on the map with some first-rate acts. Swedish thrashers, Impious are at the head of the pack, taking death metal to the extreme. Considering the complexity of today’s power metal bands, this is no easy feat.
Impious’ songs are straight up, to the point, brutal death/power/thrash metal. There is no mistaking what they are trying to do: to simply break your balls wide open with a jackhammer. Even with the high level of complexity, they present an immense amount of groove compared to your average death metal bands. This puts them at the top of my list, and may even put them into the ‘tolerable’ category of people who aren’t big fans of metal.
The vocals are a bit harsh, but pretty standard for death metal, and well done. The track “Toxic Paranoia” has the sickest drum roll during the pre-chorus, it seriously blew me away.
Impious has gone through many members and lineups so I give them the thumbs up for sticking to their passion. The only thing I have to give them flack for is the title of their disk. I think “Hellucinate” is a bit cheesy, but that’s just my two cents. The bottom line is, if you like death/thrash metal, you will absolutely love these guys. If you don’t, you’ll run away screaming to your mommy for cover.
