When Brutal Death Metal was born, in the first half of the 90s by the hands of MORBID ANGEL, CANNINBAL CORPSE and SUFFOCATION (just to name a few of the genre's pioneers), with those oppressive guitars, extreme low tuned guttural grunts and heavy and technical rhythmic work, it astonished the fans, and so many other bands came to fill the ranks of the bands. Today, the genre reserves its charm and brutality, and still awakens passion in many, as we can hear on the work from Portuguese band ANNIHILATION, that is unleashing their second bloodshed called "The Undivided Wholeness of All Things".

The band's preference for slow tempos (besides some fast ones can be heard in many moments) turns everything even more brutal and oppressive than we are used to hear from the genre, even with some nasty and raw melodies appearing in some moments (as you can hear on "Emptiness Defiled"). They have a personal and technical insight of Brutal Death Metal, and this is what makes their work really good.

When you are dealing with Death Metal genres, you must keep in mind that filth and rawness make part of the music. So the sound quality of "The Undivided Wholeness of All Things" is what we could expect, with these nasty low tunes turning things even harder to be swallowed by those that aren't experienced on extreme Metal genres. But you can understand what is being played, so we have no complains about this aspect of the album.

The dissonant and bitter "Universal Dismal Collapse" with its technical work and very good rhythmic session, the brutal impact of "Ascended Masters" and its massive guitar riffs attack, the excellent catchy tempos and technical insight of "Emptiness Defiled" (here, the guttural grunts are perfect), the slow onslaught of bass guitar and drums imposed by "Xenoverse", and the mix between fast moments with slower parts of "Nagas" are their best moments on the album.

I truly believe that they can do something better than we hear on "The Undivided Wholeness of All Things", but for now, it is really good.