ALTARS - Paramnesia Digi-CD

Some years ago I was really impressed with a debut album of Australian death metal commando Altars. In my humble opinion “Paramnesia” was one of the best debuts of this decade and I frequently come back to this LP. But recently I discovered some sad news that the band split up. Damn, it’s shame that most likely we will never get a continuation of “Paramnesia”. But instead of crying, I decided to play this fantastic record once again and also write some words, hoping this review will introduce Altars to some people and they will want to grab a copy of “Paramnesia”. Believe me, this LP is worth it.

First time I heard Altars was on their split tape with Heaving Earth. I didn’t think it was anything exceptional. But the progression this band made from the demo to this album is huge. What “Paramnesia” brings is an eruption of massive, strong death metal maelstrom, which fantastically combines the traditional means of the genre of great, noticeable influences that Altars takes from the likes of Morbid Angel, Immolation or Incantation; with the modern extreme metal avant-garde. And then the names of bands like Portal, Impetuous Ritual, Mitochondrion, even some black metal acts come to mind. So, there’s something progressive about their style, but at the same time it’s all deeply rooted in genre’s classics – can it be any better then?