This glorious reissue of "Riding Our Black Oceans" produced by Mexican Death Metal outfit CENOTAPH is an amazing treasure for those who love Old School Death Metal.

CENOTAPH gathered together in the year 1989; by this point Death Metal was starting to become a very prominent genre in music history especially with influential pioneers such as SLAYER, VENOM and CANNIBAL CORPSE emerging at the beginning of this decade. Now it's still a very popular genre amongst the metal community. Sadly CENOTAPH split up in the year of 2002 but if this re-issue has anything to with it their legacy may live on and help gather some new fans. That's the brilliant thing about re-issues; fans from a new generation can experience the same thing.

As I listen to this record I am instantly taken with it as Death Metal is slowly starting to enter my favourites genres list; it's also brilliant to hear a glimpse of very old school Death Metal and what it sounds like as I am always interested in any genre that was at first out of my comfort zone.

The tracks that highlight this re-issue for me are "Severance", "Macabre Locus Celesta" and "Infinitum Valet" as they are the strongest in presenting what Old School Death Metal consists of. I particularly admire the guitar work in each of these tracks as these melodic beauties tone down that aggression enough to get the perfect balance. I also like the track "The Silence Of Our Black Oceans" as this provides a tranquil break between the highly antagonistic tunage.

Closing track "Ectasia Tenebrae" provides the listener one more chance to experience the magnificent sounds of Old School Death Metal.

So overall a truly great album to have re-issued; can quite honestly say I am now an Old School Death Metal convert and it's thanks to this re-issue.