If you like your Death Metal extreme, then you're definitely in the right place. This is the newest album from Italy's LOGIC OF DENIAL. It's intense from start to finish, and if you really get into it, your neck will be very sore once the 40 minutes that "Atonement" lasts for is over.

It's fast, it's brutal, it's growly - everything a good Death Metal album should be. Mattia Gatti's vocals are really guttural, but they don't descend into incomprehensible growling. Typically for the genre, the themes of this album are on the more complex side of things (and the song titles a mouthful), with subjects covering - according to the band - 'the ravenous, sick, odd and contradictory side of human and in-human existence'. But don't worry; you won't be doing much thinking when you can barely keep your headbanging in line with the tempo of the furious drumming and guitars. You won't find many noodling solos here either, it's just 40 minutes of non-stop, in your face, melt your ears off Death Metal. I did find at times, however, that the tracks did tend to blend into each other at times; I'd look up, and be surprised that I'd moved to a different song. There were a couple of spoken parts which broke it up quite nicely, and slightly slowed the pace, if only for a little while.

In terms of the technical side of things, it's all very slick and tight. The bass guitar isn't the most visible at times, but when you do hear Marcello Tavernari, you can tell he's definitely giving as good as the rest of the band. It still amazes me that people can play instruments this quickly and this frantically, without the help of extra limbs. I don't think that it does anything new or special in the world of Death Metal, but "Atonement" is solid nonetheless, and wasn't a bad listen. As a person who is not usually into the more extreme side of the genre, this album was a lot more accessible than many of the others of this ilk that I have heard. There's no frills, no bells and whistles, it pretty much just does what it sets out to, and that's to blow your head off with its intensity.

"Atonement" didn't startle me, but I respect it, and the band, for what they're doing here. It's definitely one for those people out there who prefer their Death Metal heavier, more extreme, and faster than the rest.