Bloody Hell, have I landed in a zoo? If I listen to “Umbral”, the intro of “Purgatory”, I can only conlude that DOWNFALL OF MANKIND has a definite animalistic trait in there somewhere. Even when they morph into the first full song, which is the title track, I still get the feeling that we are going down somehow. The more versatile extra vocals by TRIVIUM singer Matthew K. Heafy do add a nice layer on top of the more simplistic growls by Lucas Bishop. But I am getting ahead of myself. First off I really need to introduce DOWNFALL OF MANKIND to you readers and hopefully listeners.

I could not have predicted that DOWNFALL OF MANKIND is from the very tranquil and sunny country of Portugal. The city is Lisbon, and I reckon if they let loose there the majority of the tourists will be in shelters or psychological wards within minutes. In the five years the band has been going they have been able to say that “Purgatory” is their second album to date, the debut being “Vile Birth” from 2022. And just to go back to the singer Lucas Bishop, he uses Death Metal grunts, Black Metal screams, Pig squeals and clean vocals. And it is a credit to him that they all sound rather convincing. I just hope he can replicate that when playing live.

Musically I read that they play Symphonic Deathcore. Well, I concur, as the keyboards do play an extensive role, albeit in a supporting capacity. The drummer Pedro Peralta is in his own world, using blastbeats and very fast double bass whenever he can. Does that mean all the music is so fast? On the contrary, it is a lot slower, to sometimes even almost doom like. But however you look at it, DOWNFALL OF MANKIND make it work. There is more cohesion here than I thought possible when I first started listening to “Purgatory”.

I just thought it was a whole bunch of noise, until all of a sudden all the pieces of the puzzle feel into the right places and it all started making sense. Do I feel that DOWNFALL OF MANKIND has made a blinding album? No, I don't, but I do think they have made one that will get the afficionados of Modern Metal take stock and give them something to think about. I know I needed the time, and I took it. I am very glad I did, because I now see “Purgatory” as a rather good album, by a band that hopefully has the scope to keep on growing. I'm very much looking forward to see what DOWNFALL OF MANKIND will do after this. Until then, I'll just enjoy “Purgatory”. Not exactly a sentence I'd ever thought I would say.