Search - Limbonic Art :: Ultimate Death Worship

Daemonic Due Kill Again!

Michael E. Mitchell | Minocqua, WI United States | 10/04/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Limbonic Art return with yet another unique collection of Horror and MeTal. For those of you unfamiliar with the duo, I will say that after over 20 years of listening to REAL MeTal, Limbonic Art has become my favourite band. They combine the cold speed and classical themes of Black MeTal with often-subtle orchestration and frequently prominent.......but never to the point of sounding [bad]........touches of electronica. Believe me, if an "old" MeTalhead like myself can accept it, so can YOU, no matter how "necro" you are. Because, indeed, the normally sick vocals of Daemon are topped on this album; he howls, moans, screams, shrieks.....but always with pointed discipline. He spits out anathemas against hated humankind, and shrieks--very convincingly--all the pains of the damned.
Longtime fans will note the vastly improved guitar sound on this album....it has become very thick and crunchy, and the orchestrations take a definite backseat to the guitars. There are a few INCREDIBLY creepy passages on here, and perhaps Limbonic Art's crowning song(out of MANY great ones): "Towards the Oblivion of Dreams" is also found on this new album.
The songs are everything we've come to expect from Limbonic Art(which often includes the unexpected), but the artwork(as always, done by band-member Morfeus)seems a bit less extravagant.......hmmmmmm. But a cover does not an album make, and this cover just PALES in comparison to the music within. Essential for anyone that misses the exciting strangeness and genuine MeTal "futurism" of earlier Emperor.......before they(HE, actually)got too snooty to remember the TRUE spirit of MeTal! And by "He", I sure don't mean Samoth!
You should REALLY buy this album."

Mechanical production and in many ways a repetition

abyssmagazine@sapo.pt | 01/25/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Three years have gone with the wind since Limbonic Art issued their last full-length album, "Ad Noctum - Dinasty of Death", many listeners were disappointed with that particular album in what concerns the unearth of Black Metal's vital elements, the raw sounding guitars and most of all the ravelling insanity of the entire piece which left aside the (until that moment) prominent use of the keyboard passages; others, on the contrary, instantly acclaimed the aforementioned album as the best in this duo much hailed career...
In some aspects I feel inclined to report that "The Ultimate Death Worship" might be grasped, in certain moments, as a repetition of proves already firmly given by the band on previous albums. I'm sure many purists might not agree with me on this particular observation, but what's done is done, and art has no boundaries I believe. Even the cover layout/artwork tends to repeat itself or at least fall into a slightest over-explored territory; it sure was innovative during "Moon in the Scorpio" or "In Abhorrence Dementia"-era, but nowadays I feel it doesn't actually provoke any visual or esthetical sensation at all. Though, competency and the adequate musical craftsmanship is something Limbonic Art don't miss, their dependence upon the characteristic swirling keyboards is something any cautious Black Metal listener can easily recognise (I would even go deeper stating that this is the element which brought Limbonic Art to the forefront and pushed them to another level, their extra dimension, the place where they stand now). Morfeus surely knows how to explore the atmospheric side of the music which is, as I've mentioned, still the main focus of the song-structures along with the astonishing guitar riffs which blend together to form an ultra harmonic accompaniment, or if you prefer the contra-face to Daemon's ferocious and much emphasised vocal shrieks.
For me the mechanical production is straightway the main down-point here. Too stereotypical, flat, and the overall sound is not very clear (read: the instruments well-defined on the mix), and this factor considerably ruins the most audible part of the record, it seems you're just hit by a massive wave of distortion, fuzz and undefined wind, keyboards, voices, etc. In a way, the essence of the music is lost for not being sufficiently polished and the grim beauty is also lost among the trembling guitar patterns and low-drum echoes; however, if you've enjoyed "Ad Noctum - Dinasty of Death" specially for this reason, it won't be a reason to complain about.
Ultimately, "The Ultimate Death Worship" will not exactly redefine the modus operandi for Black Metal, as perhaps the first two Limbonic Art records did, still they once again done a smash up job replete with some talented guitar work and perhaps sufficiently convincing for the great majority of Black Metal listeners.
Abyss Magazine @ Nuno M. [CR]"