THORIUM were founded in 1997 and they are from Copenhagen, Denmark. They play traditional Death Metal and they are influenced by both, the Swedish and the US Death Metal school. They released four full-length albums, the latest one "Blasphemy Awakes" dating back to 2018. "Ocean Of Blasphemy" is a reissue of their debut album from 2000. It comes with additional demo versions of two of the tracks. The album was rereleased by Danish label Emanzipation Production which is specialized in Death Metal. It has a length of almost 34 minutes. No video was released for this reissue.

"Ocean Of Blasphemy" is an album for traditional Death Metal lovers. It is raw, it is evil, it is fast and aggressive. It has all attributes of good old Death Metal of the nineties. At the time of the original release, THORIUM was seen as a promising young band with potential. And that is what "Ocean Of Blasphemy" represents. The 10 original songs follow largely the same pattern and it all starts with "Crest For War": aggressive rhythm and fast guitar riffs, crunching bass, deep growling vocals, and well composed lead guitar sequences. The guitar riffing and the rawness of the sound reminds a bit on Swedish Death Metal bands. "Abdomination Of God" and "Crypts Of Chaos" continue with the onslaught. "Abdomination Of God" is a very fast song with lots of lead guitar sequences and hammering blast-beats added to the mix. There is a mid-tempo break for another nicely worked lead guitar solo. The blast-beat sections continue in "Crypts Of Chaos" as well as the speed that is maintained at a very fast level. The sound of "Crypts Of Chaos" and "Impaled" reminds a bit on early AT THE GATES releases which was intentional at the time.

THORIUM understood to mix up their sound nicely. "Countless Ways To Die" and "Ocean Of Blasphemy" are good example of great song writing. "Countless Ways To Die" includes a lot of changes between fast paced and mid-tempo parts, fast guitar riffs are mixed with slower and darker riffing. The title song is probably the most melodic song where the lead guitars dominate. The vocals start here with an awesome high-pitched scream, they are very diverse and the growls range from the very low to the medium end of the gutturals. The drums and bass do an outstanding job on "Ocean Of Blasphemy" to provide a fairly challenging rhythm section.

There are a few darker songs on the album as well. Especially "Desecrating The Graves" sounds dark and doom-laden, in particular during the mid-tempo breaks. The guitar riffs are really powerful and are intensified by very heavy bass lines. The final song on "Ocean Of Blasphemy" is a reminiscence to DEICIDE, one of the bands, THORIUM got their inspirations from. The demo versions of two songs are also included in the rerelease and are a fitting end to more than half an hour Death Metal nostalgia.

The 20^th anniversary rerelease of "Ocean Of Blasphemy" is a journey into history. It has the best what Death Metal had to offer at the time and arguably it is still the best of Death Metal today for many fans. THORIUM not only play classical Death Metal, there sound was inspired by bands that are legendary today: ENTOMBED, AT THE GATES, and DEICIDE to name a few. I also like the fact that the rerelease maintained the rawness of the original release. "Ocean Of Blasphemy" should be among the collection of every Death Metal fan.