I've received this album with no prior knowledge of the band, and really now, looking back, they did not disappoint. DICTATED hail from Utrecht, signed by Metal Blade Records. Already sounds promising, right? A European, relatively new death metal band signed by a major label, sounds more than enough for me. So, on we go!

The album starts with a short, heavy intro, called "Forced Into Dismay", which, if it is an indicator of what's to come, is impressive. The first actual song, "This Is To All", kicks immediately in, with fast riffs, really heavy, traditional already death metal. The song breaks in the middle to a groovy mid tempo break, quite well made, but, and this is a downside of the whole album; not original... After the break we're back to the riff of the verse, and there you have it, the first song of the album is over.

The second beast, "No Absolution", starts out in mid tempo, no "un-needed" melodies, just a heavy, heavy mid tempo riff that evolves into the verse, again same ailment here. It sounds just like another song of so many other death metal bands.

"The Basher" starts out quick, with blast beats, into a groovy verse, the better song of all of the above so far. Tempo changes, actually a bit of a challenge to the ear, very well made.

The rest of the album continues along the same line of straightforward death metal beast of a CD, one fast song one mid tempo, and so on. Well made, but not original.

To sum it up, as said above, a well made death metal CD, well produced, good sound, solid work on all instruments, but all the songs sound similar to each other.<