Swedish Death-metallers DIABOLICAL, formerly known as MISANTHROPIC ORCHESTRA have been around for fourteen years and from their early efforts, like "Deserts of Desolation" in 2000 and "Synergy" in 2001, it was obvious that they were more than capable in delivering Death Metal in its finest quality. Their second full-length album "A Thousand Deaths" in 2002 was greeted with positive reviews and fans' reactions and the band toured several times in Europe between the years 2002 and 2003, with bands such as AMON AMARTH, VOMITORY and DEFLESHED, co-headlined Open Hell Festival in 2002 and Kaltenbach Open Air in 2003 and played in several other festivals.

Since 2004, DIABOLICAL have only made a few live appearances and generally haven't been much around. This was mainly caused of the intense work of frontman Sverker Widgren at his Necromorbus Studio and the increasing demands in other bands' music production. But their comeback was massive and totally worth waiting in 2008 with the album "The Gallery of Bleeding Art", a milestone in their career which gained dithyrambs and drew the attention of all Death Metal fans.This album established their uniqueness and made their next release even more anticipated.

DIABOLICAL now return with "Ars Vitae", an album which contains 17 tracks, both new recordings and previously unreleased songs. The production is, as expected, done in Necromorbus Studio and is up to the band's quality standards. Half of the songs in "Ars Vitae" are taken from live performances, but the sound quality is the one of a studio recording.

From their new songs the track that really stands out is the "Eye", while the last 3 songs are from previous recordings since there's obvious the change in the sound, style and vocals as they lean a lot more to Black Metal, although the production there is not as good as the previous songs in this album. Overall "Ars Vitae" is a very 'full' release, having live performances, new material and older, unreleased songs in one album. And to support their new release, DIABOLICAL will also start touring again, something that's very anticipated as well. Last but not least, I have to mention the artwork of "Ars Vitae" which is exceptional and creates the perfect mood for the numerous listening sessions of this album.