Band's List Death Metal Pandemic Genocide Mighty Apocalypse

Pandemic Genocide are a rather older act from Toru?, Poland but it’s taken them eight years to see their first full-length released this year, 2011, by Wydawnictwo Muzyczne Psycho after some demos and split records. Entitled Mighty Apocalypse and with a nice “blasphemous” black and white cover artwork, there is actually much more here than meets the eye.

Most people would then think, oh boy, yet another Blackened Death Metal band from Poland. And while I held such band like Azarath or Stillborn in high esteem, it does seem that most bands from Poland either play this or some Pagan Black Metal. Pandemic Genocide, despite similar lyrical themes, offer a much vaster variety of music though. The guys deliver Death Metal the old-school way and though it’s unmistakable that they come from Poland, they add a level of freshness that this very scene seems to lack (though Vader's latest record would prove the contrary).

Starting with a Conan The Barbarian-like intro, the Poles deliver then unleashed fury with high accents of Swedish Death Metal. The riffing, the melodies seem to be taken from some lost gem recorded back in the good ole days of the Sunlight Studio between Dark Recollections and Like An Ever Flowing Stream. Though the sound is not your typical Swedish “chainsaw”, the punkish undertones, which you still could feel at that time, are very reminiscent of this lost era.

The other great thing about this is they chose to have a very powerful production and didn’t drown their songwriting and turn it into some piece of raw shit the way some bands seem to like it nowadays. Everything is audible and powerful giving some welcomed thrashy groove to the record just like you would expect from bands like Torture Division or Mr. Death.

Another persistent feature, which I believe has become a trademark for all “Psycho” records, is that they’re not ashamed of putting in a lot of melodies. It’s not that they turned “gay” Melodeath or something this foul, it’s just that they clearly remembered what was so great about the old days: brutality AND melody without having to choose between the two of them. And the result: great fucking songs to bang your head to and drink your beers while singing evil choruses. The way it's always meant to be if you ask me.

Songs alternate between thrashy onslaughts within the three minutes mark or get more elaborate reaching six minutes with always the will to be efficient and kick some ass be it in a more direct or more introspective way. Definitely a Death Metal record you can’t go wrong with and another great band signed by “Psycho” (Neolith, Ethelyn, etc.). Keep up the good work!