Unholy Ghost – Torrential Reign

Saying Diabolic makes it more likely a bell will ring than saying Pessimist. Drummer Aantar Lee Coates, bassist/vocalist Paul Ouellette, guitarist Jerry Mortellaro from Diabolic and guitarist Kelly McLauchlin from Pessimist formed Unholy Ghost in January 2003. The result of this combination is a brutal Death Metal album named ‘Torrential Reign’.

With ‘The Calling Of Sin’ the standard is set, it blasts away and leaves no room for compromise. The Death Metal is taken over, covered in a bit of juicy Black Metal. The song is mostly up tempo but with plenty of breaks.

The first thing I noticed was the supreme drums as I like the way nuances are made in the blast parts which make it all sound less familiar. It’s not that I missed the intense melody the guitars and bass forced out my speakers, because there is no way one can skirt that. Evil is the message and if that did not kick in yet, Paul Ouellette will batter you with his dark message in his harsh grunt.

‘Soul Disment’ is a similair track and both make a perfect opening of an album and I would compare it with the opening of Nile’s ‘In Their Darkened Shrines’. In their completely different style, of course, Unholy Ghost totally blasts off like that.

After a slow Death Metal intermezzo called ‘Eyes Of Lost’ the album crawls up to a climax in the following tracks. ‘Denunciation ‘The Cursed’’ (the climax) does its excellent job. Unfortunately the well placed solo is not as brutal as it should be, I think. That is a shame, because some beautiful solos have already been featured on this album.

From the following tracks only ‘Torn Apart’ is a fast one, while the others made me think about Obituary at some moments. The cover of the album, a good piece of art from Mattias Norén,  says more about the sound than I can do in words.

If you are into US Death Metal, you got to check this one out. From this mature band you get what you deserve, the Unholy Ghost taking over your spirit.