Embalmed

Exalt The Imperial Beast

Hells Headbangers 2011

Embalmed is the music of fanatics, straight from the festering bowels of Mexico.  Exalt the Imperial Beast is the band's first album after a long existence of demos and EPs.  So now we get to taste the flaming annihilation of their intense and scathing blackened death.  The first real track, Vindictive Armada of Sodom blasts with all the fury and intensity of some of the scene's more apocalyptic denizens such as Revenge, Archgoat, Black Witchery, and Teitanblood.  Hyperfast drums and riffs flay your skin from your skin as the song progresses.  In The Filth of Christ bursts out of the speakers with the same stylistic abandon of its predecessor.  Its sheer fury conjures images of grind version of Burzum.  This flows directly into Transgression 666, whose same rhythmic violence threatens to overwhelm you.  Some more distinct riffs appear within the song, arcing quickly up from the drumming whirlwind to whip at your ears.  Embalmed's style however leaves little room to breathe or for the songs to establish any real depth within the listener's psyche.  That may not be the goal however.  For the most part, the songs become interchangeable as the album gets deeper into its playing time.  For example Bondage of Sin is one constant barrage of drums and sawing guitars operated at lightning speed for the song's 2 minute duration.  Warlust666's vocals are hollows scratches that enhance the haunted and tortured feeling of the music.  Exalt The Imperial Beast is unrelenting in its vicious assault upon your ears.  The warp speed drums and guitars spray metallic carnage from the very beginning of the album up until its final notes.  This is musical violence from a hellishly violent land.