Review by JD on April 7, 2010.

With fury and fire that end up combining with the infinite powers of hell... come a wall of musical explosion that has only one name for it, a band that has come from Holland to kick your ass. Sammath.

Combining the fury of the late 80's Thrash in with some serious Speed Metal guitars and a huge addition of dark and heavy Black Metal as well... Sammath has orchestrated a style that is powerful, yet has this odd resonance of melody through out every eruption of music. Started in 1984 by Jan Kruitwagen, the man cut his teeth in Australia on the more extremes of metal... now residing in Holland, he has brought his own vision of extreme metal to the world after many albums and EPs.

Sammath are some of the fastest metal bands out there, but not even one time do they rely on that simple fact alone. With darkened lyrics that are very well written, not to mention they are people that can actually play... this band brings it all together into one entity, thrashing and bashing its way to be right now one of the unknown leading forces in the world of total extreme metal.

Some might really hate the bombastic approach the band takes to deliver what they do... but that is all right... metalheads will come around when talent is there. Sammath is on a mission to make itself known to the throngs of eager metalheads all over the world... and by Hades, this album has the ability to do just that and a whole lot more.

Categorical Rating Breakdown　

Musicianship:8.5
Atmosphere: 8.5
Production: 8.5
Originality: 8.5
Overall: 8.5

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Review by Tara on March 19, 2017.

Finnish death/black metal masters Lantern return with their second full-length release II: Morphosis, a rather fitting title considering the the band has grown from an eager and enthusiastic duo to a full fledged five piece ensemble. This album has a very overall unique feel and sound that will be pretty hard for anyone else to top in 2017.

If you're familiar with Lantern's Below album, you will immediately take notice to the fact that this is no longer a solely old school death metal inspired band anymore. The mix on Morphosis has a very modern and clean sound but is still able to capture the essence of the old school influence.

Middle of the album tracks three ('Hosting Yellow Fungi') and four ('Cleansing of the Air') are the two stand outs, both effectively showcasing Lantern's ability to play metal that is technical, full of atmosphere, darkness and total despair.  They almost blatantly soak themselves in elements of old school death metal but wind up doing so in a way that isn't outdated or interesting. The usage of death metal tremolo, black metal chords and full tilt drumming combined with a thrash metal influenced attack on guitar through leads and intricate accuracy are what make Lantern truly stand out above the rest.

With this just being their second album, Lantern have taken a massive leap into well deserved metal noteriety. It's absolutely amazing to see  how they've progressed in such a short amount of time. I won't be surprised if Morphosis makes it into some top 10 of 2017 lists this year!

Rating: 9 out of 10