It's not a rare phenomenon to receive a promo CD from a band I never had knowledge of its existence. Dam is such a band and their recent release, Purity (The Darwinian Paradox), is this English based Death/Thrash Metal act's debut album.
From London, UK, the band was formed back in September 1997 and their first Demo entitled Mymindisyourhell was released in 1999. Followed by two more Demos (Come To Dust in 2001 and City Of Envy in 2002), the band managed to sign a contract with Candlelight Records through which their debut album came out.
As mentioned above, Dam play a mixture of Death and Thrash Metal. Although they manage to distinguish themselves from most of the other Death Metal bands, they are merely influenced by the current Swedish Death Metal scene and they have stayed on the 90's Metal path which Death, Carcass, At The Gates and Emperor lea. Aggressive, fierce and intense, Purity is a well-played debut album which clearly shows that Dam is a talented band. Brutal and technical, almost all tracks are up-tempo, despite some slower passages and a few clean vocals that add a variety to the album. It's also worth mentioning that the cover of Carcass, 'Forensic Clinicism/The Sanguine Article', features guest performances by Rob McAuslan of Labrat, Jason Netherton of Misery Index, Mike Harrison of Kommissar/ex-Misery Index/Psychotogen, Ben Goreskin of Gorerotted and Paul Scanlan ex-Akercocke. Dam have released a promising debut . Death Metal fans will surely enjoy this album and I think that we'll hear more from them in the near future.