Band:	Immortal Rites
Album:	Art Of Devolution
Style:	Gothenburg metal
Release date:	March 2004

01. Eugenic (Intro)
02. Fatal Exploited
03. Dressed In Amazing Red
04. Digital God
05. United Scars Anthem
06. Mirror Reflections
07. Hallucinations Overture
08. The Utter Dark
09. Pathetic Patterns
10. The Cadaverizer

As soon I got this album from German label Morbid Records I stared long time to the cover art, which is really cool, later, when reading the info sheet, I read that the cover artwork was done by Dragon Design, which always ensure pleasant visual stimulation.
Onward then, to the music we must go, analyze each second of the album and see for ourselves if this is worth fighting for.. worth dying for (ooops, sorry I saw Matrix today).

Anyway, the info sheet says this is Melodic Death Metal from Germany, played Scandinavia style, we will be the judges of that.
After a cool but short intro "Fatal Exploited" warm things up, and I must say that I was disorientated by two things, this doesn't sound much like Nordic Melodeath, and the vocals are pretty weird.

The vocals, they aren't grunts exactly, more like really strange screams, I can't really put my finger on it, maybe is a strange mic effect that I'm not aware of, maybe the guy just sings weird, who knows, who cares.
Just in the second song "Dressed In Amazing Red" (weird title) the band shows up their melodic side, and continues like that through all the album, with the strange grunted/screamed/what-effect-is-this? vocal delivery.

Speaking of vocals, there are two major guest appearances in the album, Alex Krull from Atrocity fame, and Liv Kristine, ex-Theatre Of Tragedy, this last one does fantastic back up vocals in "Mirror Reflections" thus, creating the best song in the record, I want more collaborations in future releases of the band!

Immortal Rites does offer some good moments in some songs, despite the singing and some filler songs, this is an enjoyable album with great moments, but they call it Swedish Melodeath Metal for a reason, Swedes do it better that Germans.