A Mexican Death Metal band? It's a new one for me, although not entirely, because you'd certainly be forgiven for thinking they were European. But this EP from ZOMBIEFICATION, is brutal, fast, and just a little bit scary.

This is the second release from the band. Their first album, "Midnight Stench" was full length, and unfortunately didn't really excite many people, being described as fairly average, but I definitely think that they have upped their game with "Reaper's Consecration". One thing is most certainly for sure though, this stuff is heavy, and I mean ridiculously heavy. ZOMBIEFICATION seem to have a great time really playing up to the 'Death' part of Death Metal (as you can probably tell from the band name), and it definitely adds to the whole feeling of the EP. You've got Mr. Hitchcock (very civilized people in this band) whose guttural growling is perfect for this genre of music. And the fret work from Mr. Jacko is heavy, and frantic, with tons of brutal riffs littered about. Unfortunately, my gripe with this EP is just that, it's an EP, and it's not a debut release, which does make one wonder why they decided to release something that is only 26 minutes long.

To be fair, this release doesn't really bring anything new to the Death Metal world, but having further investigated the band's history, it is definitely a step up from their debut album. And while "Reaper's Consecration" is far from perfect, is does show that the band have taken notice of what criticisms were aimed at "Midnight Stench" and have worked on this, rather than just sitting back and thinking they didn't need to change anything about their approach to their work. I think the best song here is "I Am The Reaper", a song very typical of the genre, but it holds itself up very well, and stands out from the rest with some sweet riffs and tempo changes that work very well. The band is at its best when the members are frantic, there is the occasional slower part that doesn't sound as good, but it doesn't bring down the whole EP.

ZOMBIEFICATION are without a doubt still a growing and developing band. They look like they've taken on board what they needed to change about their first effort, and done some very positive things. And if they keep improving with each release, then there's no telling just how good they could become.