My relation to Death/Black Metal is not this 'warm' anymore, but when it comes to well-played blasphemic, non-atmospheric (and rest shit) extreme music it's a kind of delight that possesses my rotten soul. And, the truth is, it was long ago (for my likes) I last heard such a grindcrushing album. Summon deliver on of the best Black/Death albums of the year; no questions asked. Fallen is a great release and must be treated as such!
The band comes off the early 90s US 'extreme' Metal scene. Influenced by the venomous likes of Bathory, Carcass, Morbid Angel, Blasphemy, Carcass, (old) Slayer and Celtic Frost, their brutal outputs - from 1995 and onwards - have resulted in receiving some great feedback among neck breaking Death/Black Metal followers. Who can recall the band's exceptional 1999 (was it, really?) Baptized By Fire devastating CD? From this album and beyond, next Summon releases - 2000's No Thoughts From The Sky (Blackened Moon) and 2002's And The Blood Runs Black (Moribund) - succeeded in presenting uncompromising yet classy brutal Metal. 'Cause Summon's music - be it Death, Black or even Thrash - is by all means brutal and evil. And this status establishes the act's honest scope.
Fallen sees - first of all - one of the best (ever!) sounds I've heard in a Death/Black Metal album. The production is just unbelievable! Everything is 100% listen-able, the mix is magical and the layers of sound attach so smoothly one to another that you cannot  easily believe humans have created this volume, this sound and this atmosphere. I don't know who's behind the console but - whoever he/she is - 'thumps up' to the blackened sky (especially for a Moribund release)!
The guitar work is the most thrash-y part of the album. Based on Slayer-influenced bands' techniques - like Angelcorpse or 'raw' Deicide - there's enough of pitching and tremolo-ing in the album; and this kicks ass, as it creates a certain unholy atmosphere. The riffing is 100% blasphemic - from the Venom guts of hell to the vaults of the Bathory hades - while the drums/bass parts are completely demonic. Blastbeats exchanging blood with double-bass frenzy, all these backed up by misanthropic carnivorous bass lines. Nothing less than exciting, nothing at all. Flirting with both Death and Black Metal (but more on the 'black' side), the vocals - last but not least - are mordant and completely diabolique. Flirting with both the early 90s Norwegian Black Metal (plus some of Carpathian Forest) formulas and - partially - early US Death Metal, words spew out of hell  rather profanely!
Fallen: the 'diamond' extreme Metal release of 2005. Who said that innovation is the key to success? Fallen's (short of) lack of innovation is - maybe - the only drawback, but if you have any cell - or limp - in place after this 35-minute holocaust, just try to think for a minute...