Netherlands based death/thrash and melodic death metallers Detonation sent me this all of the way back from 2011. It's also the last disc they released before going on a long hiatus, by which another full-length has not yet appeared. I don't think we'll hear anything else from these guys again though, especially seeing as bassist Otto Schimmelpenninck van der Oije is now in a very famous female fronted act by the name of Delain and guitarist/frontman Koen Romejin is is currently playing in four other bands right now. There's still a possibility, but will it ever sound this good? The best of Dark Tranquillity, Dissection and a little bit of Opeth are here, along with some groove bits that really stick. Fans of At The Gates and Nightrage will also find something here in Reprisal, as Detonation will sound like long lost friends that you never knew you had. Without question, everything that I love about melodic death metal is here, but the disc is not overly beautiful. Instead, it's main concern is to plunge your carcass directly into the ground with no remorse or even a hint of a clean vocal. Yes, this is melodic death the way we remember it, albeit with just a few injections of modernism.
These guys are ill-reviewed on Metal Archives, almost as if someone completely forgot that they made two records in 2005 (Portals to Uphobia) and Emission Phase (2007). Their debut (An Epic Defiance) has an astonishing 90% however, which makes me think that it must be even better than the disc I'm reviewing, which only has a 70%. That being said, only one person reviewed each album, so that's a very biased opinion to judge I feel. Autothrall did provide the review for this one however, but he can be a bit biased towards some of the discs I like, himself preferring a much different quality of metal than myself, apparently. I can guarantee that if I sat down with the guy and listened to some of the records he gave 100% to, I'd probably find something wrong with them, or that they aren't quite so good. The likewise could be said about some of my favorite albums as well, because reviews are merely opinions and only resonate with listeners that feel the same. This is just my opinion, it is just my observation. I always encourage people to listen to the discs themselves.
This disc is pretty damn old and from what I can tell, it's certainly not a reissue. Hell, the sound quality is low for this promo, so it's awful fuzzy to begin with. Too bad, because these guys are good and they don't even have a proper Bandcamp. They have a Facebook and ReverbNation as well as a home page, where two of their records have been sold out for quite a while. (They're also the two that have not been reviewed on Metal Archives, strangely. Does anyone have these fucking records?) Apparently, you can buy this disc for thirteen euros along with the debut which only sells for eight. If you don't want to do all that, you'll probably just listen to the damn thing on YouTube. The band's home page hasn't even been updated since 2013 and that was just a “we're not dead” update, so go figure. Anyway, these are a great bunch of tunes in the old school style of melodic death metal and maybe they'll make some more of them in another ten years or so. If you want to hear what the frontman/guitarist is up to now though, you can check out Apophys which released their debut album Prime Incursion last year. They play tech-death, so it's a little bit different than this record though. Give them both a listen, I'm sure they're worth it.
(8 Tracks, 35:00)
8/10
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