Vorkreist
SUBLIMATION XXIXA

March 2006
Released: 2006, Xtreem Music
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

France is not only about the Eifel Tower, lame softcore porn, Peugeots, awful wine, beautiful women, etc.; it´s about some good Death Metal, too. The country has become famous amongst metal loving folks by such Death Metal acts like Mutilated, Merciless, Loudblast, Agressor, No Return and so on during the past two decades - and now we can add this fivesome named Vorkreist to the very same pile as well. The band succeeded to impress me by their debut album titled SABBATICAL FLESH POSSESSION which the Spanish Xtreem Music put out from them in 2003. The band´s 2nd album, SUBLIMATION XXIA, is basically a continuation to where they left off on their ferocious debut record. To give a more detailed description about Vorkreist´s frenzied musical attack, the label´s info kit says "Vorkreist mixes Death Metal´s brutality and bestiality with Black Metal´s aggressivity and rawness, delivering an uncompromising Satan dedicated to a bestial Death Black Metal". Well, actually I cannot do anything but feel an urgent need to agree with that relatively bold statement. While listening to the songs off SUBLIMATION XXIA, it´s rather obvious Vorkreist´s warflags that fly bravely high in the air, are full of such names as Angel Corpse, Possessed, Morbid Angel (Mike Browning -era), Necrovore, Incubus (FL/Georgia), Fallen Christ, etc. - i.e. all of those old school Death Metal names whose careers started after mid ´80s. The band manages to sound convincingly dark, evil, barbaric and satanic just like any of those aforementioned listed and they do their thing really damn well, leaving a listener totally convinced about where this satanic bunch really comes from. Old school Death Metal is offered at its purest, finest and ugliest form in the tattooed hands of French Vorkreist, and it´s not easy to not like them if you only happen to be a fan of some of these old masters of death. Tracks "Mystical Hierarchy of Perdition" reminds me somewhat strongly of Mike Browning -era Morbid Angel whereas "TortureKult" isn´t far removed from the infernal, nun-raping soundscapes of bands like Angel Corpse and Fallen Christ. Vorkreist certainly knows how to open the gates of Hell wide open, and how to release thousands of vicious Hell´s demons against you that are out there after for you, to crucify your soul.



I feel crucified, nailed to the cross after spinning SUBLIMATION XXIA forward and backward - over and over and over again. They really got me... and it´s your turn next. ;=)