Death Metal, Black Metal. Two very different, yet slightly similar Sub-Genres from the Extreme Metal family tree. At first no one would have thought to combine the two together. Now in the past 10 years, a lot of bands have mixed the two together to create Blackened Death Metal. Today, the next band to fill the footsteps in this sub-genre are a 4 piece assault from London, SIDIOUS, with their debut album "Revealed In Profane Splendour" Released via Kaotoxin Records.

The opening track of the album "Sacrilegious Majesty" really does draw you in with an eerie sounding synth being backed up by tribal-esque drum rolls and slow but atmospheric guitar chords with a gradual build up that does have you wondering "When is it going to happen?" And then t happens. The very talented man behind the kit, Khrudd absolutely destroys the track by blasting our ears into space, hell and beyond. The songs structure has a very healthy yet extremely heavy flow to it all, blast beats, tremolo picked riffs, guttural vocals, atmospheric sections of clean guitars. It seems to me that SIDIOUS have really nailed the formula for fusing Death Metal and Black Metal.

The Start of the second number "Inexorable Revelation" says "Fuck what we just did" and goes straight in for the kill with traditional Black Metal tremolo picking and blasts, but this time around it seems like the album has just got a lot more heavier and interesting. We're only two songs in. How are we getting this impression already? Like I mentioned, SIDIOUS actually know what they are doing in all respects of the music. Mid way through the song, the riffs are getting thrown out there, mixed in with a very technical yet brief bass section. (Thank you Baalrath, there is never enough bass in Blackened Death) towards the end of the track Isfeth's harsh and guttural vocals blended in with his very intense high pitched vocals, really leave you thinking "I'm pretty sure this guy just consumed the souls of Nergal (BEHEMOTH) and our lord Satan himself to produce that kind of vocal".

"Revealed In Profane Splendour" Is the title track of this already well thought-of debut. Like the rest of the album so far this perfectly mixes the traditional elements of both Death and Black Metal, which I think is very important if you're in a band that combines genres. The pounding blasts from Krudd strike back once again, making this very destructive yet atmospheric sound. Shortly following the Titanic destroying riffs and blasts are the very impressive vocals from Isfeth, yet again, absolutely dominating the track. Going back to the black metal roots, just midway over the song we hear a very minimal of music with a well mixed whisper which leaves you on edge yet gives you a slight break as the band prepares you for a drop when the music comes back with MORE destructive vocals, MORE destructive guitar riffs and we finally get it. We finally get the absolutely perfected mix of slow guitar riffs with insane blasts, a range of low and high vocals. SIDIOUS, YOU GUYS REALLY KNOW HOW TO WRITE MUSIC! 

Four songs have passed and I still feel like I'm walking through the gates of hell. The atmospheric and ambient start to "Annihilation of Abhorrent Credence" is very shortly followed with even more Satan, even more tremolo and even more bass and drums than I thought there was already. This song in particular has the vocal influence of let's say "SEPTIC FLESH" with the music of "EMPEROR" if they had a child with "NILE" the result of course, is an outstanding debut from SIDIOUS. If I had long hair I would totally windmill to this more times than you should actually do so. This band are full of surprises as I was suddenly shocked to hear a very beautiful clean vocal fly over the track which actually adds a lot more evil to it than it was already (Impressive). The song draws close to the end by first shooting out some awesome piano notes and chords to then be blasted with some heavy as shit guitar riffs and blast beats.

"Obscenity ov Old" takes over from the rest of album, getting straight to the point with an all out heavy blast off, constantly keeping up the speed and heaviness. Unlike the rest of the album, this is actually standing out more due to the slight progressive elements within the actual music itself, imagine "ENSLAVED" if they suddenly became four guys from London who know how to make an outstanding debut. Honestly, guys, If you are reading this; YOU GUYS RULE SO MUCH!!!

Fading in perfectly to the penultimate number, we reach "Infernal Reign". Which already sounds more evil than the rest of the album; from the minimalistic low volume guitars with aggressive and low guttural vocals bellowing over it give it such an evil tone. This is then followed with some ultra sounding Black Metal riffs true enough to burn churches by itself. You can totally see that their Influences reach from BEHEMOTH all the way to DIMMU BORGIR, which is what I like to see in bands esepcially new ones, where you can actually hear the influences in their music. Finally and unfortunately we hit the grand Finale of this outstanding debut. "O Paragon, Bringer ov light" Is another track that stands out a lot more than the other songs on this album, the reason for this it opens up with a very harsh and old school sounding vocal to then be tailed and hunted by the build up of instruments from guitars, to keyboards, faster paced drums and then when the vocals reappear we hear another guitar come back into the mix. With the mid paced feel and duel vocals give a very slow but a unsurprisingly heavy twist to this already perfect debut. And Just when I thought this band was impressive enough already, they begin to add a lot more melodies and riffs and drum fills and vocals to add an absolutely crazy experience as you venture forward towards the edge of space/ the gates of hell/ into the warped mind of Lovecraft.

My overview of this album; Absolutely fantastic debut with amazing musicianship, writing skills and the most important part of all, this band are not afraid at all to break boundaries and you will be impressed with how tight and how heavy this debut sounds. Good luck for future endeavors SIDIOUS. 
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