(DGR finally caught up with the German melodic death metal band Soul Demise via their latest album released this past March by Apostasy Records, and what follows here is his extensive review of that newest record.)

Much of what we do around these here parts is taking bands at first blush. Such is the nature of discovery; we cannot be experts in absolutely everything and were we to trot out the mighty statistics of just how many bands exist across this pale blue dot of ours it would be more of a sermon about being crushed under the weight of inevitability than anything valuable. There is a mammoth amount of music out there, and as self-cast spelunkers we are just as likely to cross a band when they are wee bairns in the musical world as we are to come across a group who are deep in their career.

When such a case does arise, we do try to make an attempt to look backward for context but that can only take one as far as one can be thrown, and the flesh is so spongy and weak these days. Instead, you get that aforementioned first glance at a group – a current-eye snapshot of a band who have enough releases to their name and a lengthy enough career that there are going to justifiably be fans of a group who are mind-boggled that we’re just getting around to them now.

And so we encounter Germany’s Soul Demise, who have existed in their Soul Demise form since 1998 and, barring some lengthy gaps in their recent two releases, were on a pretty consistent clip of music up until 2010. The group’s newest album Against The Abyss is also the first time yours truly has ever crossed paths with them. Continue reading »