MEMORIAM — Requiem for Mankind (review)

MEMORIAM — Requiem for Mankind album cover Album · 2019 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Requiem for Mankind" is the 3rd full-length studio album by UK, Birmingham based death metal act Memoriam. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in June 2019. It´s the successor to "The Silent Vigil" from 2018 and it´s the band´s third album in as many years since they formed in 2016. Memoriam is a four-piece and consist of former and present members of Bolt Thrower, Benediction, and Cerebral Fix, dedicated to playing early 90s influenced death metal. The kind of death metal most of them played in their respective bands in the early 90s.

Stylistically the material on "Requiem for Mankind" continue the predominantly heavy and mid-paced old school death metal style of the two predecessors, but Memoriam have hit something right on this one, which they didn´t fully achieve on the preceding releases. Both were decent quality old school death metal albums, but with "Requiem for Mankind", Memoriam have raised the quality of all features to arguably make it the band´s most interesting release to date. The songwriting is memorable and catchy, the performances are strong (Karl Willetts does not sound hoarse and out-of-breath like he sometimes did on the preceding releases), and the sound production is raw, powerful, and punchy. A real treat to fans of old school death metal and early 90s Bolt Thrower in particular (the war themed lyrics also point in that direction).

"Requiem for Mankind" is quite the nice surprise after the rather mediocre "The Silent Vigil (2018)", which is an album that had me questioning the relevance of Memoriam. "Requiem for Mankind" answers all my questions with quality and more...quality, and I hail the band for being able to lift the quality of both their songwriting and their musicianship. The powerful and well sounding production job is another contributing factor to "Requiem for Mankind" being such a great release, but it´s the quality and memorability of the songwriting, which is the greatest difference from its direct predecessor. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.
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Nightfly wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Great album, easily their best.

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