Review by Emma on April 8, 2010.

Brutal Death Metal from Ukraine! Brilliant Coldness’ second release "Poisoned Reality" is everything a death junkie could want and then some. "Poisoned Reality" opens with one of the most interestingly mundane samples of the urban sound-scape. The fact that this is the starting point for the album makes sense; dealing with the annoying cacophony of other people you hate certainly puts one in the mood for Death Metal of the most brutal sort.

Their sound can be defined as bass-heavy as in you can really hear the bass. They even allow the guy a solo! Sputtering vocals with a peanut-butter texture unique to Eastern Europe add a particular charm. Brilliant Coldness’ overall sound could be described as heavy with an old-school feel as they avoid any Black Metal influence as far as effects and recording quality. What makes this album stand out is again the odd sample choices, the introduction to ‘Paradox Of Madness’ is a particular favorite in it’s appropriateness.

The album overall is well done, solid, and enjoyable. It’s unfortunate for this band (like so many others) Photoshop was the artistic tool of choice for the cover design. I mean, I would not have looked twice at this album based on that, which is shallow I know, but really, there’s a lot more going on here and shouldn’t the visual presentation justify the music inside? This doesn’t affect the rating for "Poisoned Reality", it just bugs me. Get out your pens and ink people! Even horribly drawn covers have more charm than the digital stuff!

Anyways, this is good stuff. If you like your Death Metal with a little old-school, make sure to put Brilliant Coldness on your metal shopping list!

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 7
Production: 7
Originality: 6
Overall: 8.3

Rating: 7.4 out of 10

Review by JD on March 27, 2010.

The Ukraine is known for many things that are both good and bad, one of the good is the proliferation of very extreme forms of metal. Coming out of this growing yet somewhat misunderstood scene, Brilliant Coldness seems to be of the more talked about heavy bands that is from the former Soviet Union satellite province... and who are shining stars in the making. Fascinated, I dived in.

Combining some seriously heavy Technical Death Metal with this strange underlying Grindcore aspects in the music, Brilliant Coldness seemed to be one of the heaviest things I have encountered. With the thunderous speeding style of drums, acid laced slashing guitars and gravel vocals that seem to be from the darkest realms of never-ending pain and total destruction... this band never fucks around when it comes to playing. With such devastating power, it seems that only the strong will survive the metallic onslaught.

Now, I am not a Grindcore fan, but hearing just how the Grind is incorporated into the Death Metal so effortlessly... it brought the music alive. Add in the fact there are many cases of great lyrics not to mention that this is also a killer recording to accent some staggering musicianship as well - Brilliant Coldness has a guaranteed metallic monster on their hands, and they are not afraid to use it.

Gotta really repeat myself in a different way... this more than just a great album- dare do I say so early into a new year that this might be the Death Metal album of the year? Yep, it is that fucking good.　

Categorical Rating Breakdown　

Musicianship:9
Atmosphere: 8.5
Production: 9
Originality: 8.5
Overall: 8.5

Rating: 8.7 out of 10

Review by Alex on June 14, 2019.

I understand Obliterhate is currently on hold, that's disappointing to hear because Multiple Counts of Murder is a promising debut record despite an unwanted factor. It lies somewhere between mid-90s and early 00s death metal sonically, the only drawback about this record for me is the programmed drumming. Usually if I discover the drums are programmed on a record I avoid it by all means, but in Obilterhate's case, I was willing to look past that because of the cartoon artwork on the album. What I found buried amidst the cardboard programmed drumming is a sincere aim at establishing Multiple Counts of Murder and the name of the band as a serious undertaking. Obliterhate showed that despite the lack of a real drummer, they were compelled to make an album that possessed most of the necessary ingredients to be a competing force amidst recognized names of the genre. 

The vocals and guitars play their roles so well that the absence of a drummer rarely ever crosses the mind of the listener; the manual music does a considerably good job of hiding that missing element. Songs like “Broken Arm of Mortality”, “Gutten” and "Cannibal” reveal a purpose hidden below the computerized drums as though knowing there is something not favorable with the music but still managing to play with a straight face. Decent vocals (in the form of throaty grunts), good guitar leads, and solos give the music some amount of depth, though not the best organization of lyrics as they sometimes sound crammed into the music and off-beat/out-of-sync at times, a sense of genuine care still manifests throughout the 33 minutes on Multiple Counts of Murder. 

Commendable song structure and variation that equally rivals the thrashing also makes its presence evident further giving Obliterhate credibility in the midst of the unfavorable but necessary drum programming. More about the automated drumming; it's nothing a decent extreme metal drummer can't play; I say this because I’ve heard computerized drums on records that are noticeably challenging to play live and is often the case with many bands. I'm glad they did not go crazy and create an overly technical album that would make it even harder to find a capable drummer. Fortunately, the mechanical drums don’t obstruct the music as much as I thought it would, all thanks to the heavy emphasis on the guitar distortion on the songs that drown a fair amount of that clappy double bass. 

As mentioned earlier, Obliterhate is currently in some form of hiatus, as all of the musicians involved are active participants of other extreme metal groups such as Devilpriest (fantastic band), Imperial Sin and Izurus; therefore, exclusive commitment to the project is currently not a possibility. However, if they do decide to reactivate their engines for new Obliterhate material, I hope they do so with the aid of a real drummer. Multiple Counts of Murder shows good prospect for a debut release and begs to be challenged by future efforts under the Obliterhate moniker. Multiple Counts of Murder is much of a presence alerting album that leaves room for a subsequent body of music.

Rating: 7 out of 10