Nightfly Disturbance is the debut album from Italian brutal death metal band Hour Of Penance. Even at this early stage the band are clearly great musicians. They are as brutal as the best of them and play with the usual lightning speed with great precision that’s associated with this sub-genre. Where it falls a little flat is in the songwriting department. Each song passes by in a blur of notes and blastbeats but the riffs lack that killer edge to set them apart from the pack. The guttural growls are no better or worse than I’ve heard numerous times before.

Opener, excluding the short atmospheric instrumental, Rise And Oppress gets thing off to an impressive start and is probably the pick of the bunch with some compelling shifting rhythms and dissonant riffing. After this things rarely let up but most of the riffs are less memorable and a bit more variety wouldn’t go amiss. They make some amends on final track Blood Tribute. At over 8 minutes long it gives them the opportunity to get more inventive and even slows down a bit and adds some dynamics.

Fans of the likes of Hate Eternal should find Hour Of Penance to their liking but If you’ve never heard them before I’d dive straight in at 2010’s Paradogma. By then they’d matched the impressive chops with much better songs.