Behold the ascension of an awesome band from Finland that adds a lot of progressiveness to their Death Metal without losing the genre’s core viciousness.

It’s not a secret to anyone that Finland always delivers when the music in question is Melodic Death Metal. However, the Land of a Thousand Lakes now offers a more brutal and old school version of the genre the likes of Death and Carcass thanks to Progressive/Technical Death Metal band Denominte. This powerful five-piece act has just released their debut full-length album entitled Those Who Beheld The End, experimenting with melody and progressiveness while at the same time keeping the heaviness and aggression of Death Metal flowing from each of the album’s seven demolishing compositions.

Formed in 2009 in the city of Oulu under the name Encrypted and having released their debut EP named Realms of Confusion in 2014, the band decided to change their name to Denominate in 2015 (with no changes to their lineup, though) as well as to increase their focus on the harmonious parts of their music instead of just pounding their instruments manically. As a result, in Those Who Beheld The End, recorded and mixed at a private studio in Oulu in two separate sessions due to their studio engineer’s personal projects (which ended up delaying the release date for some time), Denominate bring forward a strong balance of violence and melody that will please both fans of old school Death Metal and admirers of the more modern sounding of Melodic Death Metal.

As soon as you start listening to the opening track, In A Chasm Of Stone, you’ll be able to notice those core ingredients in their music due to the high level of intricacy found in their guitar lines. As aforementioned, they play a very technical version of Death Metal without losing the genre’s inner havoc, with the exceptional drummer Joni Määttä sounding like a machine gun and, consequently, bringing an additional layer of brutality to their music. Degradation is an old school chant led by the vicious growling by Ville Männikkö, and even with all the devastation going on you can still savor the progressiveness of the riffs and solos by guitarists Kimmo Raappana and Eetu Pylkkänen; whereas the heavier-than-hell bass lines by Tuomas Pesälä kick off the obscure song Penumbra, enhanced by the low-tuned gnarls by Ville and the unstoppable beast by Joni, guiding the listener to darkness. In other words, this is definitely the type of composition that will pave Denominate’s path to stardom in extreme music.

The Demented Scholar of Abatos not only has an awesome name, but it’s also an extremely well-crafted composition where bass guitar and riffs generate the requested obscurity for Ville to keep growling and screaming. Moreover, this progressive song, less bestial and presenting more melodious lines, perfectly depicts the new concept proposed by the band, and as you’ll be able to notice while listening to it the final result is quite interesting. And following that stampede of progressiveness we have the 11-minute visceral hymn Torments of Silence, starting with a somber acoustic intro before darkness takes over the sonority and the band’s crushing Death Metal dominates your mind. Not only the sharp riffs by Kimmo and Eetu take the spotlight, but add to that the song’s precise tempo changes and the sonic impact of this excellent full-bodied composition increases considerably.

A very technical riffage together with blasting drums can only result in good music, which is the case in Apeirophobia (the fear of eternity), highly recommended for guitarists that love extreme music thanks to the job done by both Kimmo and Eetu, not to mention the song’s thoughtful and hellish lyrics (“Arising from a need, to achieve and repeat / tainted by fear to be doomed to predict / every action from here to eternity / linked to the past, past to the future / the ageless serpent ever devouring itself / the Styx ever-flowing, towards the source”). And lastly, walking through the realms of Melodic Death Metal we have Terrestrial Funeral, one final shot of progressiveness blended with endless pugnacity where the bass lines by Tuomas get even more complex than before, while Ville keeps screaming with anger in his heart until an excellent guitar solo concludes the song and the album.

In summary, the music found in Those Who Beheld The End might not be that very traditional form of Death Metal that stormed the world decades ago, but it maintains the vicious essence of those golden years without sounding outdated or repetitive, pointing to a very promising future of the genre. With that said, behold the ascension of this awesomely heavy band by visiting their Facebook page, YouTube channel and SoundCloud, and grab your copy of Those Who Beheld The End (you can listen to the entire album HERE) at Record Shop X, at the Inverse Records’ webstore, at Denominate’s BandCamp page, on iTunes and several other locations.

Best moments of the album: In A Chasm Of Stone and Penumbra.

Worst moments of the album: None.

Released in 2016 Inverse Records

Track listing
1. In A Chasm Of Stone 5:08
2. Degradation 4:05
3. Penumbra 5:07
4. The Demented Scholar of Abatos 5:40
5. Torments of Silence 11:16
6. Apeirophobia 6:04
7. Terrestrial Funeral 5:49

Band members
Ville Männikkö – vocals
Kimmo Raappana – guitars
Eetu Pylkkänen – guitars
Tuomas Pesälä – bass
Joni Määttä – drums