Band:	Infernäl Mäjesty
Album:	One Who Points To Death
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	June 2004

01. Death Of Heaven
02. Pestilential Eternity
03. Angels And Acid
04. Honey Tongue Of Satan
05. Hysterion Proteron
06. Cathedral Of Hate
07. Virgin Blood Tastes Purest At Night
08. One Who Points To Death

Infernal Majesty is admittedly a legendary underground band in the Thrash metal scene. They come back now after six years of absence with their fourth studio album. I'm not going to write a long dissertation upon how much their sound and their music has changed over the 17 years of their career, because although it is the kind of band I've always heard people talk about respectfully, I've never had the intelligence to give it a try. That's a big mistake I guess, above all if the rest of their discography is as good as this 'One Who Points To Death'.

To sum up Infernal Majesty's sound, let's say there is a thrash metal enveloppe, and within it are scattered death metal rhythms, lots of accelerations and a really dark atmosphere enhanced by the more or less satanic lyrics. They oscillate between pure thrash that can even remind of the last Exodus, and death metal aggressive attacks that blast everything on their passage. The result makes me strongly think of Slayer period South Of Heaven and Seasons In The Abyss, for the gloomy melodies of some riffs and intros (the end of 'Death Of Heaven', 'Honey Tongue Of Satan' for example).

But they are far from being simple copies of the almighty S, they have a really strong personnality that make them display an ability to play killer old-school thrash riffs that a lot of bands could envy. The vocals are excellent as well, even if they are closer to death metal screams and growlings than to a thrash singer. The production is maybe not perfect, but at least it has no major flaw. All these elements put together create the most brutal thrash album of the year, with songs like the relentless 'Angels And Acid' and 'One Who Points To Death', but also an album that remains catchy and accessible. They even could win the award of the funniest song title of the year: 'Virgin Blood Tastes Purest At Night', the name sounds like a bad Cradle Of Filth song... But the song is brilliant, one of my favourites here.

So to sum up, One Who Points To Death easily ranks among the best thrash albums of the year (what is this year 2004 and all these thrash releases?). If you don't have it yet, you really miss something...

Highlights: Death Of Heaven, Honey Tongue Of Satan, Virgin Blood Tastes Purest At Night