Death Metal suffered a strong setback on the middle of the 90s, because Doom Gothic formulas, Doom Progressive Metal, and the Second Wave of Black Metal took the world by assault, and many great names of the genre released albums that weren’t as good as their classics, or ceased to exist due the difficulties. But Death Metal - as any other Metal genre - never dies, so it was a time when good new names were being created into the underground. One good name from the past five years if the Polish quartet TOUGHNESS, here with its second full-length, “Black Respite of Oblivion”.

Haldor Grunberg and the band itself shared the responsibility to produce the album (Haldor worked on the recordings, mixing and mastering as well), with sound engineering of the drums done by Mikołaj Kiciak. The sonority is fitting on a Death Metal usual model, but with efforts to sound organic (the tunes used on the drums denounce such thing). It’s not bad, but could be a bit better to give the sonority more punch. As guest on the vocals of “The Profanity That Creates an Expression of Pain at the Impossibility of Ascending to the Lower Realms”, “Condemned to Noxious Persistence” and “Vile Unrelenting Miscreancy”, here is Will Smith (of ARTIFICIAL BRAIN, AFTERBIRTH, REEKING AURA). The very good artwork is a piece created by Turkka Rantanen.

The band works on a Death Metal model that mixes a good technical appeal and a brutal insight of the classic ways, remind a bit what was done by the Norwegian quartet ZYKLON in some moments. It’s nasty and aggressive, but with a very good taste on the instrumental arrangements, and bleed in pure energy. It’s precisely what the doctor said that is good for a Death Metal fan.

“Abominating the Scourge”, “The Profanity That Creates an Expression of Pain at the Impossibility of Ascending to the Lower Realms”, “Black Respite of Oblivion”, “Embrace Blackness”, “Carrion Entrails (Lost Abyssal Disbelief)”, “Condemned to Noxious Persistence”, “From the Shroud of Human Disgrace”, “Open Wounds of the Forgotten Planet” and “Vile Unrelenting Miscreancy” are songs that shows a band that’s still maturing its musical ideas, but that already reached a very good level of quality. And it means that these guys have potential to become a strong pillar into Polish Death Metal scene. But just a tip: try to clean a bit the vocals, because such low growls aren’t fitting 100% on the instrumental lines.

But don’t get the wrong idea: TOUGHNESS is a very good name, and “Black Respite of Oblivion” shows that they’re on the right path. It’s just a matter of evolving and adjusting the factors written above.