Today I have the luxury of reviewing ASPIDIUM and their very first album "Manifestum". It's not every day you get a band willing to not write or sing in English and it's actually pretty awesome when they don't. I have always wondered why bands don't write in their native tongue and instead cater to just one section of the metal community. The band is made up of Kurt Jason Kelderer from Germany and Benni Leiter from Italy. This has to be one of the more unique bands I have been able to review. They are a mix of Doom/Death/Black Metal, but there is something different about them that I can't quite put my finger on. Whatever that something is makes me really like this band and makes them stand out to me.

The first song on the album is the Intro as well as "Blutrausch". This song really lays the ground work for the whole album. It's very eerie from the get go and I absolutely love it. It is really catchy as well. The way the vocals by Kurt Jason Kelderer mix perfectly with the Guitar played by Benni Leiter is phenomenal. I really think singing in German was the perfect choice for this album. Up next we have the track titled "Apathie" which picks up the pace quite a bit as far as tempo goes. It still sounds pure fucking evil and it's amazing.

The third track on the album "Loivatar", is one of my favorites on "Manifestum". It has a certain groove to it that flows well with how dark the album is. If I could go back in time to when I had a MySpace account and could take this song with me, it would definitely be the one that played when you opened my page. "Apocalypse" is the half way point on the album, and so far all I have heard is pure excellence from ASPIDIUM. And this song does not change that opinion as it is pure gold itself.

"Todesreiter" is the fifth song and absolutely melts your face off. You can feel the anger that this song was written with. I would have to say it is the albums battle song. I don't know whether to bang my head or do the windmill head bang. "Glaubenskrieg" is different from the rest so far. It is almost upbeat but still sounds like someone pissed off Kurt Jason Kelderer. I thoroughly enjoyed this track and it leaves me wanting more, luckily there's two songs left!

"Ende Der Zeit" really takes the cake as far as a really well written Metal song goes. The placement of the vocals and guitars makes this another of my favorites, if not my number one favorite of the album. If you want to listen to one song to get a feel for the album I highly recommend it. The last song on the album is "Katharsis" and is an instrumental track. It's a wonderful ending to such a badass album. It's really rare that a bands first album is so amazing but they pulled it off. This is going into my favorites folder. Fantastic job ASPIDIUM keep up the great work and I look forward to hearing more from you in the future!