Time Signature Beyond the madness of metal...

Genre: death metal

Polish deathsters Sphere strike back with a barrage of blasphemous death metal in the form of their sophomore album Homo Hereticus.

To my ears, the album is a bit of an uneven ride with songs ranging from mediocre to brilliant – but, that being said, my overall impression of the album is a positive one with the majority of songs striking me as being really good. Drawing on more traditional aesthetics of death metal, but injecting a dose of modern metal into it every now and then, Sphere's style on this album focuses on strong potent riffs which are juxtaposed with fast and grinding bleastbeat parts. Brutal by nature, the band of death metal on this album is perhaps not riveting or innovative, but it is solid and observes all the virtues of the genre. An interesting aspect is how Sphere vary the level of technicality, as the album contains both primitive old school death-grind riffage and rather technical riffage ('The Devils Reunion' is a good example of this), and they also infuse elements from thrash metal and hardcore into their music. Especially, the crossover/hardcore elements work very well in generating energy and primitive aggression, as can be heard in parts of 'Sadistfucktion' (which even features Sphere's take on d-beating) and 'Psalm to the Dark One'.

The production is clear and defined, but does not neglect the inherent brutality of the music on Homo Hereticus, and the musicianship is impeccable, showing that we are dealing with very competent death metal songsmiths, and skilled performers. I especially like the controlled and not-too-attention-seeking character of the guitar leads, which are technical and impressive, but serves the cause of the music rather than serving the ego of the musician. That's very admirable. I am not a big fan of the growled vocals on this album, but the singing definitely suits the music like a glove (there are some grindcore-derived weird vocal effects every now and then that annoy me, but that's a minor point).

With Homo Hereticus Sphere have committed a work of solid death metal which stays 100% true to the genre and observes all of the conventions of traditional death metal. This release should appeal to fans of old school death metal bands ranging from Bolt Thrower over Morbid Angel and Carcass to Suffocation.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)