Review by JD on May 15, 2013.

I thought that Quebec Technical Death Metallers Quo Vadis had a new album out and I was lucky enough to be reviewing it. Turns out I was really wrong on the band that I got. Instead of the French Canadian Technical Death Metallers that are one of the best at what they do, we have for my reviewing pleasure the Progressive Death/Thrash Quo Vadis from Poland.

Playing since 1986 seems that this band has been through the wringer as they slogged their way through the scene. Playing a maelstrom of Death/Thrash and Progressive metal, this polish four piece is a top notch outfit that knows what to do. Slashing guitars, brutal spat vocals and churning rhythms that seem to crack the very ground they walk on, Quo Vadis knows what works for them and uses it to their advantage.

The album was 48:29 of pure dynamic fury set in what sounded like quicksand. I did love songs like the driven guitars of 'Mia' and the explosive 'God', but found the sound on these tracks to be a bit muddy sounding in the places that it was not supposed to be. The other songs seemed to be afflicted by the same sound virus, creating an album that most songs sounded too alike – destroying what could be a monumental album that would rival many of the extreme metal releases out there right now.

I love Quebec’s Quo Vadis and always have, and this did not change that. Poland’s metallic sons did not impress me, and I hope that this is just a small glitch. I am going to search out the other releases from this band to listen to, and I hope that "Babel" was just and unfortunate horrendous bump in their road. I see boundless talent in the bands line-up, this album does not even try to show that in anyway.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 5.5
Production: 5
Originality: 5.5
Overall: 5.5

Rating: 5.9 out of 10

Review by JD on May 15, 2013.

I thought that Quebec Technical Death Metallers Quo Vadis had a new album out and I was lucky enough to be reviewing it. Turns out I was really wrong on the band that I got. Instead of the French Canadian Technical Death Metallers that are one of the best at what they do, we have for my reviewing pleasure the Progressive Death/Thrash Quo Vadis from Poland.

Playing since 1986 seems that this band has been through the wringer as they slogged their way through the scene. Playing a maelstrom of Death/Thrash and Progressive metal, this polish four piece is a top notch outfit that knows what to do. Slashing guitars, brutal spat vocals and churning rhythms that seem to crack the very ground they walk on, Quo Vadis knows what works for them and uses it to their advantage.

The album was 48:29 of pure dynamic fury set in what sounded like quicksand. I did love songs like the driven guitars of 'Mia' and the explosive 'God', but found the sound on these tracks to be a bit muddy sounding in the places that it was not supposed to be. The other songs seemed to be afflicted by the same sound virus, creating an album that most songs sounded too alike – destroying what could be a monumental album that would rival many of the extreme metal releases out there right now.

I love Quebec’s Quo Vadis and always have, and this did not change that. Poland’s metallic sons did not impress me, and I hope that this is just a small glitch. I am going to search out the other releases from this band to listen to, and I hope that "Babel" was just and unfortunate horrendous bump in their road. I see boundless talent in the bands line-up, this album does not even try to show that in anyway.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 5.5
Production: 5
Originality: 5.5
Overall: 5.5

Rating: 5.9 out of 10

Review by JD on May 15, 2013.

Crossing my desk this morning was a CD from Infliction, a self-described Thrash/Death Metal group from the upper Northern region of Italy, just north of Milan. Not overly intrigued by the cover, something was telling me go ahead and listen to this disk … so I loaded it onto my computer and began to listen to it.

This six man band comes at you like some elite military unit with so many killing tools. Melodic Death, Thrash, Prog and even old school Metal are used and all without any confusion in their intense music or to what they were doing. Infliction seems to have found their sound and just how to use it in an impressive way.

Songs like 'Redhouse' and its infectious thrashy ways that sear into your mind while the total nasty riffage of 'Nocturnal' seems to want to blow your head clear off. Infliction can play with such a great amount of skill and intensity, blowing your mind with every note given and yet there is one problem. The only critique is that the keyboards were over used. They are great when accompanying the music and adding some punch, but always seemed that it got in the way too much when they were trying to make them prominent.

This was a very good album, but if they could redefine the role of the keys to just accompaniment more of a supportive road – this would have been a better way. They do rock, but it loses something with the keys set up like this. Sorry.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 7 (keys made this fall flat)
Production: 7
Originality: 8.5
Overall: 8

Rating: 7.9 out of 10