"Against All Good & Evil" Is the second album by Israeli melodic Death Metal band PREY FOR NOTHING. When they released their debut album "Violence Divine" I wasn't too eager to listen to it, mainly because I was led to believe that the occupation of vocalist Yotam Avni with the band was the reason for the breakup of his previous band ABED, which are still one of the top three bands to ever come out of Israel in my opinion. I later found out that one has nothing to do with the other but at the time it obviously made me resent the band's existence a bit. Even though I had setbacks I still bought the album and it was exactly what I had expected it to be, melodic Death Metal at very high standards but nothing that stands out in terms of originality though I forgot about it after I listened to it a couple of times. But then about a year later I found myself wanting to come back to that album, and once I did the songs began to haunt me. I just couldn't get them out of my head and that was when I realized PREY FOR NOTHING's area of expertise. They may not be the most original band out there but their songs just catch you in a very specific way.

I have to admit that nowadays I'm kind of fed up with melodic Death Metal, I just believe that the sound's potential has been tapped out to its fullest and it's next to impossible to bring something new to the genre but I knew I could trust PREY FOR NOTHING to give me the annual fix I still require from this genre and that they did. The new album consists of 12 songs and there is in interval called "Axis Mundi" in the midst of it. The interval in this album seemed very significant to me because the songs that follow it suggest a slight change in the album's direction thus making it seem like the album is divided in two halves. The first part consists mostly of the melodic Death Metal hymns which one can expect from the band though PREY FOR NOTHING 's Neo Classical influences that are more felt here than in the previous album. Furthermore, the songs are also in higher standards, this part of the album contains some dangerously addictive songs such as "My Final Relapse", which is the only song on the album that I have literally found myself going back to dozens of times but the highlight in this part of the album for me was "Chekhov's Gun", which beyond being a total blast of a song also has a really unique vocal composition that really caught my attention. But what really makes this album interesting is its second part because it demonstrates the development in PREY FOR NOTHING's sound and their musical growth. The songs on the second part of the album stir the musical direction more towards Progressive Metal and I for one really liked it.

The first song that comes after the interval is "Home Made Holocaust", which is one of the best songs on the album. It stands out mostly because it plays on a duality between straight forward Death Metal in the verses and bouncy groove in the choruses. The three songs that follow it are also great but the true pinnacle of this album comes in the two songs that close the album; "Against All Good" & "Against All Evil". "Against All Good" is great for it's amazing build up and it's epic vibe which comes to a surprising climax when the guitar work suddenly turns acoustic and it is accompanied by an enchanting clean singing part (not the only one in the album, "Turning Shears To Swords" also has a clean singing part in its ending), "Against All Evil" was a real treat for me and I have to admit is a  lot due the vocal work. Yotam's main techniques are Death grunts and screaming but he uses screaming more often which makes sense because of the musical direction. Nonetheless, I prefer his Death grunts so I was very pleased with this song because it is the only song on the album in which he depends solely on them. Beyond that, this song is clearly the most brutal song on the album, it really reminded me of DECAPITATED but not to the degree that it sounds like a rip off.

As I have already said PREY FOR NOTHING may not be the most original band out there but one thing that makes them stand out above other Death Metal bands is the guitar work of Yaniv Aboudy, which is in a higher level than most guitarists in the genre and in this album he seems to have ascended to an even higher level, especially in terms of composition which was relatively versatile in this album yet it doesn't stray too much out of the confined lines unfortunately.As far as the lyrics go, most of them address venomous criticism towards a wide range of subjects, from New Age in "Buried by the Light" to psychology in "Deciphering the Signal" and they do so with lethal precision. As a matter of fact I believe that the lyrics are one of the main components in what makes PREY FOR NOTHING's music so haunting. The lyrics are just so dead on the target that you can't help reminiscing on  them and going 'fuck yeah..That's so true' I actually found myself chanting their lyrics on many boring bus drives.

The production value on this album is also great but like most productions in this genre I found this one a bit too sharp and thin sounding because I personally prefer a more depth and round sound it sometimes ticked me off a bit. This album was without a doubt the next logical step for PREY FOR NOTHING but I am hoping to see them break some boundaries in their next effort. For now this is will be an excellent fix for whenever I'm in the mood for the band.