9th Plague
Triumph of Diabolism

October 2006
Released: 2006, Self-released
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

Heavily American-sounding Death Metal coming from Helsingborg, Sweden: 9th Plague´s Death Metal terror attack strikes in form of the band´s 3rd demo, carrying a nicely ´diabolical (eh?)´ title, TRIUMPH OF DIABOLISM. The band´s previous 3-song satanic manifesto, AGE OF SATANIC ENLIGHTMENT, was released in 2004 already, and they are still looking for the right label to sign with.



These Swedes have already proved to be a talented bunch by their constant strive for sounding like some of the more established names of Death Metal genre. With this I feel a strong need to refer to some of these American Death Metal groups that took the leadership in the Death Metal genre for years ago already, i.e. Morbid Angel, Immolation and Hate Eternal coming to my mind as the first three names. And in fact, if some band sounds exactly like those 3 aforementioned bands, then the Swedish death troopers 9th Plague is a perfect candidate to become the next metamorphosis of those three American Death Metal acts. 9th Plague´s Death Metal comes across brutal, dark and heavy – exactly the same way like Morbid Angel´s, or Immolation´s or Hate Eternal´s. 9th Plague´s death throat Tony has obviously tried his very best sort of imitating Ross Dolan (Immolation), sounding like his little brother in rage - whereas on the other hand, apparently the band´s guitarist Kristofer has admired Trey Azathoth´s demonical guitar wizardy for his entire life as far as his similar sounding guitar riffs – and rhythms are concerned. But then there´s a certain formula going into their songs that bring Hate Eternal´s name to my lips. Let´s take for example a song called “The Shrine of Satan” which clearly is a competitive enough with its trickiness to some Hate Eternal stuff; especially comparison to H.E.´s best work to date CONQUERING THE THRONE is what screams to get a mandatory raised eye brow effect here as a sign of simple fact and general acceptance.



Having said all this, if you are only looking for Death Metal akin to Immolation, M.A. and H.A., then look at the Swedish death commandos 9th Plague´s direction. The band should have all the weapons for a mass destruction that you are looking for.