Prophecy
Our Domain

After a long time since my last review (one of my first ones, I'm getting emotional), I'm back to talk about Prophecy, the American band that includes (or has included) members of Dying Fetus and who released the beautiful "Foretold...Foreseen" in 2001. Three years after this LP, they returned with "Our Domain," which initially left me slightly disappointed. Disappointed, yes, because I expected that Death mixed with Hardcore elements that characterized their previous work; instead, as is mandatory for a respectable Death Metal Band, they changed their style, and I found them on this CD more Brutal than ever.

No Hardcore influences, no Grind influences, just some of the best Brutal Death music around; as I already stated in the previous review, the members of this band (or at least its "minds") have enough experience in this genre to do whatever they want. And in 2004, Prophecy wanted to deliver to their very select audience a kind of anthology of Brutal Death: drawing on their tenure with Dying Fetus and nearly two decades of presence in the extreme metal underground, its members took stock and wanted to piece together the parts of Death from its birth until now. "Our Domain," in my very humble opinion, is precisely this, a "sum" of what has been done in this genre over the last two decades, filtered of course through their personal taste and excellent instrumental technique.

In an album like this, I believe a Track By Track would be best, but I find this type of rundown extremely boring and flat: in any case, know that every song on this album is a gem and each tells something different about Death metal.

Anyone who had listened to their previous album will remember the technical standards of our guys, decidedly high: well, open your ears because "Our Domain" is less technical than its predecessor. I asked myself why this choice was made, because it's obvious that it's a choice, and I answered myself that perhaps they wanted to completely break away from Dying Fetus's style to create a true Side Project where they could do something different. This, of course, does not detract from the performance of the musicians which, if it was excellent in the previous album, remains excellent here.

The Drummer, honestly, seemed the most laid-back of the five although in good shape: let's be clear, he doesn't miss a beat and fires off bursts of Blast Beat with rare precision and handles tempo changes and Stop And Go without problems, but he's lacking those virtuosities that made him great in "Foretold... Foreseen." Nonetheless, even those who listen to him for the first time would understand that he is an exceptional drummer playing parts below his actual abilities. Parts that still remain several notches above many others in this genre; the drumming is indeed of stunning variety, alternating fast sections typical of Brutal with more paced ones (many) to classic suffocating slowdowns ("The Shit") proving a truly rare compositional intuition. I've deliberately used the term "intuition" and not "capability"; Prophecy does not invent anything new and does not experiment, but perhaps precisely because of their past, they compose songs of exquisite quality. The riffing is fresh without being anti-traditionalist, powerful, engaging: once again, even if it's not very difficult from a strictly technical point of view (heavy use of Palm Mute and chords but few scales), it relies on decidedly complex tempos that are often at odds with the drum lines. The bass player stands out among the other musicians; for once, the bass can be heard (and not just in the heavy, rock-like breaks in which our man performs) thanks to truly exemplary production, filtered just right but not confusing and not cold as a result. The icing on the cake is the voice, in perennial alternation between a decidedly low Growl, a slightly cleaner one, and some Scream with a capital "S".

In short, "Our Domain" lacks nothing to become an Olympus album of Brutal; ten songs each more beautiful than the last in which influences of all the greats in the history of Brutal Death can be found. There is something of the new Slam wave in the opener "Our Domain," nods to Obituary in "Tortured By Deceit," true tributes to Suffocation in "Questions Never Answered," a requiem for Chuck Schuldiner in the wails of "Destined To Fail," references to Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and the rest of the Floridian school scattered everywhere. All of this, we mustn't forget, is revisited with the typical Dying Fetus style. Just listen to a song like "Keep It Fucking Brutal," perhaps the best on the CD, to realize the worth of "Our Domain"; and I don't want to hear that they don't invent anything new, because writing songs like these in 2004, I assure you, is anything but easy. I'm the first to complain about clone bands, but here the discussion is completely different.

"Our Domain"; never was a title more fitting. Brutal Death is Prophecy's domain, a band that if it had already made sparks with the first work here manages to leave you speechless; an astonishing eclecticism and their commitment in the studio bring to shops this album, which I fearlessly define as one of the ten best Brutal Death albums in history.