Melbourne, Australia based Technical Death Metal act HADAL MAW have been going since 2010, and, after releasing a demo in 2012, they have finally put out their debut record, "Senium", which is a near forty-four minute long slab of Technical Death Metal. So just how well did this album measure up?

The opening track is technical, definitely, but the thing that strikes me the most about the opening riff is how progressive and almost Djent-like the riffs are. There's obviously a lot of musical ability within this band and they're not afraid to show it. "Invisible Eye", by contrast, is much more of a straight forward Death Metal track, although the elements of progression in their sound are still there. "Corridors" manages to be both dissonant and simultaneously groovy, and vocally, very powerful. "From the Mouths of Monsters" definitely ups the ante with the aggression and rips through the speakers, with its thick, groove-laden guitar leads and the pounding drums. "Dissent" is very much the same; incredibly ferocious and powerful. "Ancestry", a really short but cool percussion piece, acts as a way to break up the album and lead into the second half of the album, which opens with "Coil", which goes a bit more down the progressive Death Metal route of the first three songs. "Hypnoguise", although a great track, doesn't really stand out on this record. "The Lurid" is another more or less straight forward, heavy Death Metal song which works very well. The end of this track leads seamlessly into the following one, "Altar of Ire", which is probably the best song on this record. The guitar lines sound brilliant, the delivery of the vocals is passionate, and the drums top the whole song off well. The final song, "Obsequia", blends the technical with more heavy aspects of the bands music very well, and acts as a pretty good way to close this record.

This album, in my opinion, was a bit hit and miss. I wasn't entirely keen on the more technical, progressive side of the bands music, but when they went down the more conventional Death Metal route, they proved they could hold their own among some of the bigger names of the genre. This is a good start for the band's first album, but there is definitely some room for improvement there as well.