Holy Murder Masquerade (CD - 2007)

Lyricist: Valle Adzic.

Impious: Martin Åkesson (vocals); Valle Adzic (guitar); Erik Peterson (bass instrument); Mikke Noren (drums); Robin Sörqvist (background vocals).

Additional personnel: Thomas Backelin (background vocals).

The Scandinavian metal band's third album is an aggressive tour de force of brutal vocals, pitiless tempos, and unrelenting noise that includes the breakneck "Death on Floor 44," the punishing "Bloodcraft," and the vicious "Everlasting Punishment." Martin Akesson's vocals seem to issue from the bowels of hell, and the album's free-flowing onslaught of finger-shredding fretboard pyrotechnics shows that these minions of Satan are well schooled in the dark arts of creating musical fire and brimstone.

For their fifth full-length album, Swedish death metal collective Impious went the conceptual route, building the songs around a protagonist intent on proving to the world that he is the true "servant of God." It's an all too common theme for the genre, and the blood and brutality that follow aren't nearly as shocking as they think they are, but what sets this vision apart from the myriad of others is the gorgeous 23-page comic book by Italian horror artist Andrea Cavaletto (take that, downloaders). It's like a storybook for evil grownups, and it makes listening to Holy Murder Masquerade a lot more fun. Musically, Impious specialize in pretty standard melodic death metal (even when the band turns to thrash for its inspiration, it never does so atonally), but the production is tight, clean, and unforgiving, and the playing reliable and at times quite cathartic, especially on the crushing "Bloodcraft" and the epic title cut. Holy Murder Masquerade won't change the face of Swedish metal, but it definitely knocks it around a bit. ~ James Christopher Monger minimize