Straight from the depths of Hell – well, Newcastle via Birmingham; y’know, the birth places of heavy metal and black metal – comes the mighty Sheol (written in Hebrew to, erm, avoid confusion). As if from nowhere they’ve arisen and rushed straight to the very top of the UK death metal pile. Hell, to the top, worldwide.
Fans of Grave Miasma and Cruiciamentum will love this debut, summoning as they do the same sort of eerie otherworldliness and spooky foreboding terror. A spot-on cover of Darkthrone’s death metal classic Cromlech fits seamlessly alongside their own efforts and is a pretty good indication of what to expect.
If there is a criticism it is that at only 25 minutes, it is not long enough. Perpetual Descent Into She-ol and Deluge Of Tehom are over too soon. The only reason you didn’t see this appear on Hammer’s end of year ‘best of’ Critics’ Poll is because the list was written before this album was released. A last hurrah in what was the best year for death metal in decades.
