For this one I tried a different approach; I started listening to the album completely unaware of the band's biography facts. So, the moment Enter Annihilation kicked in I realised that I had to do with Modern Thrash with many references to the Gothenburg sound. The music is clearly riff driven with fast shredding leads that flirt with Thrash and of course Melodic Death Metal. The nice Heavy Metal twin guitar harmonies are always welcome and here there is plenty of them.
So, after my first contact with the band it's time to give some biographic data. Apparently this band comes from my homeland Greece with their debut album Enter The Annihilation released through Massacre Records. This was actually one of the rare moments that I did not realize the band's ancestry from the singer's pronunciation. Even though there is plenty of distortion in his voice Jon Simvonis has done a very good job avoiding the usual pronunciation sickness that almost all of the Greek vocalists seem to suffer.
Horrow Show brings some SLAYER riffs in and building a solid rhythm section with some artificial guitar harmonies that spice things up a little bit. Since there is no change in the vocals I have to complain here about the monotonous Metalcore approach. Indeed the vocals sound flat and over-distorted at least for my personal taste. The galloping guitars open for Part of the Game where some SOILWORK influences appear especially during the chorus lines. The guitar work is impressively good bringing in some shredding solos and some at least interesting phrasing. Part Of The Game breathes some Power Metal air with double guitar riffs that made me think of FIREWIND and a little bit of MYSTIC PROPHECY. The Power Metal feeling would not have surprised me if I had read the promo sheet where the name of R.D. Liapakis popped out as the producer of Enter The Annihilation. In this song we get some clean vocals too that I found to be way better than the distorted ones. The nice and fast hammer-ons and pull-offs in Killer Instinct made think of Michael Ammot and his work with ARCH ENEMY.
The album is full of energy and aggression with very good ideas and definitely impressive guitar work. The minor complaints about the distorted and monotonous vocals can be put aside because the music here is top notch. The melodic keyboard breaks in the most melodic Descending, the IN FLAMES electronic sounds in Unblind and the TRIVIUM-like Day To Die=Die Today are some of the reasons for checking this band out. The Trust is an aggressive way to close this album comprising fast tempo, screaming vocals and NIGHTRAGE twin guitar work. So, DESCENDING is a pleasant surprise from Greece that definitely needs some good albums to establish a powerful name in the Metal scene.