Lista de los grupos Death Metal Victimizer (NL) Tales of Loss and New Found Serenity

I might own more than just a few CDs in Death Metal and consider myself quite knowledgeable, I had never even heard of Victimizer from the Netherlands. To be even totally honest, I thought we were dealing with the Thrash Black band from Denmark with whom they share the same patronymics.

I researched the net for some more clues and found out that Victimizer share two members with the more known (that’s all relative now I guess) Toxocara, another Dutch Death Metal act. I saw that they lost a member due to a serious head injury but yet decided to keep on playing. I'm not in these guys' heads but somehow I feel that this loss has transpired in these new songs found in their sophomore release “Tales of Loss and New Found Serenity”.

The material here is very dark, brutal and yet melodic most especially in these nostalgia-ridden guitar soli. This is not Death Metal for the sake of playing Brootal stuff. It’s more of the introvert stuff though it still keeps the momentum high enough to enable some furious headbanging.

I’ve read other reviews of this album (well, you know, the research…) and I found that most reviewers were frankly lost when trying to compare Victimizer’s to other acts. In most cases, they just didn’t mention anything (I’m sure their readers will appreciate…) or were just bullshitting… Did I read Cannibal Corpse somewhere? Haha, what a joke. I’m not saying I’m omniscient or that kind of pretentious bullshitting but I feel like Victimizer’s music is best described as Ulcerate and Lost Soul going melodic at times. Long circumvallated structures with almost crying guitars… that very mix of brutal and melodic made me think of Polish act Repossession or Spain's Banished From Inferno but also another Dutch act named Prima-Nocte in that ability to blend crushing material laden with emotions. The production is almost too flawless to be true but considering that Swano and Unisound studios took a part in the mastering of the record, in the end it’s no big surprise.

How much of these “emotions” is due to the loss of a former member, I wouldn’t know personally but the overall “doom” ambience and the titles of most songs (Reunited for Eternity, Past the Eulogy or A Psalm to the Fallen) have, I may assume, had to do with this previous loss. Though it’s always hard to deal with such pain, it turns out that you’re being served with an atypical Death Metal record worth the money you’ll spend on buying it. Most assuredly also, the lack of coverage they suffered from with their debut release will be a thing of the past and Victimizer will be a name to be remembered for in the very near future.