Nightfly Conflagate The Celestial Refugium is the debut album from multi-national Cambion. A new band to me, having not heard their previously released EP and demo. The three band members have been playing in extreme, mainly death metal bands, for years though apart from Hate Eternal whom drummer Chason Westmoreland briefly played with, I am also unfamiliar with.

From the off its obvious this is going to be a pretty intense ride. Relentless ultra-fast blast beats and a blur of double kicks, with only the occasional respite where they slow it down a bit, are the order of the day on this slab of blackened death metal with thrashy undercurrents. It’s technical stuff with brilliant musicianship from all involved. Those who enjoy the intensity of the likes of AngelCorpse and Perdition Temple should lap this up. Fortunately they’ve also got great songs with the riffs to back all the bluster up and over the thirty eight minutes my interest never waned, which for an album that on the face of it offers little musical variation, takes some doing. However, final track Obscuratio, a nine minute plus instrumental, sees the band trying something a bit different. The break neck blasts are still there but it takes time before we reach them, prior to which from a lone guitar opening we get a more tempered approach. It makes a good closer but the previous seven tracks are where this albums strengths lie.

Conflagate The Celestial Refugium has turned out to be a great find, an album that I’ve been playing more than most over the last couple of months. Certainly one of the best death metal albums of the year so far. Essential listening for fans of the genre.