Review by Krys on September 9, 2019.

Is it possible that an old chainsaw peaks at its performance after 20 years of use? Swedish death maniacs Paganizer prove that age is just a number and well-oiled HM-2 machine can stand toe to toe with the latest trends or innovations.

The Tower of the Morbid doesn't hold anything back, giving us just 8 seconds warning from air raid siren before bombarding our senses with 38 minutes of hefty guitar chugging over devastating guttural burps from Rogga Johansson. While this Swedish grove attack wasn't unexpected, the fluid use of the variety of elements caught me a little of guard (in a good way). Seemingly same old formula of Scandinavian melody with American brute force, but this time it was used with surgical precision spanning all spectrums of death metal and performed by seasoned musicians at the peak of their craft. From opening, smashing 'Flesh Tornado', galloping through 'Apocalypse Writings' or definition of Swedish death metal 'Drowning in Sand', Paganizer rips without wasting time on intros or fillers. And that's just first quarter of the record. 'Redemptionless' adds slower Bolt Thrower like barbarity while 'They Came To Die' can stand tall to the best of what Amon Amarth has ever had to offer. Countless head-banging moments are deliciously spread out across the record with catchy hooks and melodic leads that not only score high in repeatability department but also get better with every listen. I'll be honest, I didn't love this record after the first spin but now it's the most often replayed albums in past 2 weeks!

Production wise, The Tower of the Morbid is filthy heavy, yet with clearly audible punishing blows from gurgling like a boiling blood bass and punchy drums, that set the backbone to ferocious guitar attack and crushing vocals. And Dan Seagrave cover art is not too shabby either.

Who knew that over 20 years old Paganizer can inject fresh blood to good, old Swedish death metal and lead the charge with extreme assault that will challenge year's end best top lists. Well done gentlemen, well done!

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Review by Death8699 on July 20, 2019.

This album is atypical for me not because it's melodic death, but it's because it's a mix of melodic death and metalcore. That shouldn't be any reason not to like about this album, it's because it's just different to me. The music is a mixture of riff-laden rhythms which is cool because it's a really original sounding release. Them mixing melodic death with metalcore makes the album unique. The fact that this is a combination of the two genres of metal makes it not knowing what to expect in the musical category. I liked this from start to finish, though I think that they could've done a little better on the leads. Other than that criticism, the music makes up for it.

Hearing this first digitally made me like it because it dives through all different kinds of guitars, vocals and the production is of sound quality. There seems to be a lot of heart to this. The sounds of the guitars are unique and mostly distorted tone. But there are clean guitars on here, too. They seem to like to change up the tempos here. Mostly it's distorted guitar riffs and nothing that over exceedingly heavy. This band has a lot of offer the metal community. They're like I said, atypical but still doggone intriguing to listen to. I like the distorted guitar rhythms and they shift from that to clean, hence the metalcore vibe. I'm not a huge fan of metalcore, but some of it on here is all right.

These guys need to be heard by the masses of metal fans. Their music is quite interesting. A lot of down picked guitar along with tremolo picking overtures as they swing from tempo to tempo. It's quite interesting that they're able to do this. The vocals are pretty cool, not really a deep throat sound but hoarse with some clean tone in there. I would give the album a higher rating if the music would've stayed consistently intense. The whole album is odd. The melodies are quite swift, and the vocals go well along with the guitars. Definitely unique sounds altogether.

If you haven't heard this band, do yourself a favor and hear them. You'll probably come to the same conclusion as I, weird but unique.  If you're a guitar player, maybe you'd understand some of my jargon about the guitars. Check them out and if you like what you hear, support the band and order the CD. It's worth it. I know some tracks taper off sounding out of place, but overall this album is a "B" to me. I liked it enough and gave it a fair shake. Check them out, they're really strange but different and I mean that in a good way.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Review by Death8699 on July 20, 2019.

This album is atypical for me not because it's melodic death, but it's because it's a mix of melodic death and metalcore. That shouldn't be any reason not to like about this album, it's because it's just different to me. The music is a mixture of riff-laden rhythms which is cool because it's a really original sounding release. Them mixing melodic death with metalcore makes the album unique. The fact that this is a combination of the two genres of metal makes it not knowing what to expect in the musical category. I liked this from start to finish, though I think that they could've done a little better on the leads. Other than that criticism, the music makes up for it.

Hearing this first digitally made me like it because it dives through all different kinds of guitars, vocals and the production is of sound quality. There seems to be a lot of heart to this. The sounds of the guitars are unique and mostly distorted tone. But there are clean guitars on here, too. They seem to like to change up the tempos here. Mostly it's distorted guitar riffs and nothing that over exceedingly heavy. This band has a lot of offer the metal community. They're like I said, atypical but still doggone intriguing to listen to. I like the distorted guitar rhythms and they shift from that to clean, hence the metalcore vibe. I'm not a huge fan of metalcore, but some of it on here is all right.

These guys need to be heard by the masses of metal fans. Their music is quite interesting. A lot of down picked guitar along with tremolo picking overtures as they swing from tempo to tempo. It's quite interesting that they're able to do this. The vocals are pretty cool, not really a deep throat sound but hoarse with some clean tone in there. I would give the album a higher rating if the music would've stayed consistently intense. The whole album is odd. The melodies are quite swift, and the vocals go well along with the guitars. Definitely unique sounds altogether.

If you haven't heard this band, do yourself a favor and hear them. You'll probably come to the same conclusion as I, weird but unique.  If you're a guitar player, maybe you'd understand some of my jargon about the guitars. Check them out and if you like what you hear, support the band and order the CD. It's worth it. I know some tracks taper off sounding out of place, but overall this album is a "B" to me. I liked it enough and gave it a fair shake. Check them out, they're really strange but different and I mean that in a good way.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Review by Michael on August 13, 2021.

If you like and need melodies and some kind of joy in the music you listen to, you can instantly stop reading this and move on to another review. Hexorcist don't make music to make you happy (if I'm not totally wrong about that), maybe the intention is to create some stuff to play loud in the garden if you don't like your neighbors or to welcome your wife when she comes home, and you have the intention to get divorced in the near future.

Cavernous vocals paired with really sick guitar riffs and a thundering drumming would explain their musi(c)k the best. What those four guys from Miami play is a very old school version of death metal, sometimes quite primitive but never crude mixed with some also very old school black metal parts. The song structures are very repetitive but what makes this stuff quite interesting are the guitar solos. I guess they quite often listened to “Altars Of Madness” by Morbid Angel. I think that this would describe the sickness of these guitar solos best. But of course, this not their only influence. Bands like Sarcofago, Blasphemy or Sijjin (though this is a newer band) come to my mind while listening to Evil Reaping Death. 'Proverbs Of Pestilence' is one of the most outstanding tracks, peppered with a lot of guitar solos so that you can definitely see/hear that the guys can play their instruments. 'Denouncing The Immaculate' is another interesting track which starts with a sinister keyboard melody just to turn into a blackened, repetitive and hypnotic track full of evilness. 'Unrighteous Ceremony' is pure Morbid Angel worship, just listen to the first riffs of the track. Somehow, I have the band “Darklord” from Australia with their 94 Demo in mind, too. Maybe it's because of the little bit crooked sounds in that track. The last track is a cover of the 'Crucifixion' by US band Devastator taken from their 2007 album “Morbid Force”. I think they perform it quite well, and the sound is much better than on the original version.

Production-wise, the sound could have been a little bit clearer, but I guess with that raw sound appears to be the charm of that album, so I won't complain about that.

If you value cover of an album, you should definitely check the cover of Evil Reaping Death. I think that this is a very detailed and lovingly designed (which here is ironic) painting created by Johnny Prayogi.

What is my conclusion right now? I think Hexorcist could have used some more variety in their songs to make the tracks a little bit more distinguishable but all in all they have written a very solid old school death metal album which could fit very well into the mid/late 80s. Now get this one and invite your neighbors to a nice garden party with you as focus!!!

Rating: 8 out of 10 ear plugs

Review by Death8699 on July 20, 2019.

This album is atypical for me not because it's melodic death, but it's because it's a mix of melodic death and metalcore. That shouldn't be any reason not to like about this album, it's because it's just different to me. The music is a mixture of riff-laden rhythms which is cool because it's a really original sounding release. Them mixing melodic death with metalcore makes the album unique. The fact that this is a combination of the two genres of metal makes it not knowing what to expect in the musical category. I liked this from start to finish, though I think that they could've done a little better on the leads. Other than that criticism, the music makes up for it.

Hearing this first digitally made me like it because it dives through all different kinds of guitars, vocals and the production is of sound quality. There seems to be a lot of heart to this. The sounds of the guitars are unique and mostly distorted tone. But there are clean guitars on here, too. They seem to like to change up the tempos here. Mostly it's distorted guitar riffs and nothing that over exceedingly heavy. This band has a lot of offer the metal community. They're like I said, atypical but still doggone intriguing to listen to. I like the distorted guitar rhythms and they shift from that to clean, hence the metalcore vibe. I'm not a huge fan of metalcore, but some of it on here is all right.

These guys need to be heard by the masses of metal fans. Their music is quite interesting. A lot of down picked guitar along with tremolo picking overtures as they swing from tempo to tempo. It's quite interesting that they're able to do this. The vocals are pretty cool, not really a deep throat sound but hoarse with some clean tone in there. I would give the album a higher rating if the music would've stayed consistently intense. The whole album is odd. The melodies are quite swift, and the vocals go well along with the guitars. Definitely unique sounds altogether.

If you haven't heard this band, do yourself a favor and hear them. You'll probably come to the same conclusion as I, weird but unique.  If you're a guitar player, maybe you'd understand some of my jargon about the guitars. Check them out and if you like what you hear, support the band and order the CD. It's worth it. I know some tracks taper off sounding out of place, but overall this album is a "B" to me. I liked it enough and gave it a fair shake. Check them out, they're really strange but different and I mean that in a good way.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10