UMUR
When Landscapes Bled Backwards is the debut full-length studio album by Greek technical death metal act Sickening Horror. The album was released in June 2007 by Neurotic Records/ Willowtip Records. When Landscapes Bled Backwards was produced by the band themselves and mixed by Neil Kernon ( Nile, Nevermore...etc.). The band were at this point a three-piece consisting of George Antipatis on guitars and vocals, Ilias Daras on bass and George Kollias ( Nile, Cerebrum...etc.) on drums.
The music on the album is technical death metal with a great dark atmosphere. The growls are deep and brutal but enjoyable to my ears. Somewhere between undecipherable and decipherable. The album features sporadic use of keyboards and sound effects which provide some dark/ ominous atmosphere. It´s fortunately never overdone and as mentioned the use of keyboards is only sporadic. The playing on the album is technical but never in an awkward way. The focus is always on power. Check out the fierce drumming by George Kollias. Once again he proves that he is one of the top drummers in the business. The short instrumental Virus Detected, is where the band live out their tech metal tendencies the most. Other than that ( and the short gloomy piano track All Perceived Nothing) most of the other tracks on the album are great technical death metal songs with loads of tempo- and time signature changes, blasting sections, dissonant Voivod like chords and a sense for memorability that´s rare in the genre. The fact that the album is only 35:43 minutes in length is another plus in my book. That the perfect length for music this demanding.
The production leaves a bit to be desired if you mostly enjoy clean/ clinical productions but it´s still powerful and enjoyable and maybe the more raw production even gives the album more atmosphere.
Many technical death metal albums feature excellent musicianship, but few actually feature great songwriting and memorable songs. When Landscapes Bled Backwards fortunately feature both great technical playing and an emphasis on writing memorable and brutal death metal songs. This means that my listening experience has been a greatly enjoyable one and When Landscapes Bled Backwards fully deserves a 4 star rating. Sometimes even a 4.5. I find this album highly recommendable for fans of technical death metal.