Hour of Penance - Sedition
Italy has never been much of a hotbed for brutal Death Metal, so back in 2003 when I first heard Disturbance, I was blown away and quick to anoint Hour of Penance the best Italian DM band of all time. 2005’s Pageantry for Martyrs was more of the same bulldozing guttural punishment, further cementing the band’s title. However, each release since then has been increasingly less heavy (both musically and vocally) and considerably less memorable, while becoming radically more technical and somehow even speedier. Fast-forward to Sedition, several lineup changes later, and the band is barely recognizable as the same monstrous beast they once were. All Death Metal bands that hope to achieve, let alone maintain, any level of success are going to have to sound like Nile or Behemoth. I accept that, but I don’t have to like it. It’s clear that Hour of Penance subscribe to that theory, as the only moments of Sedition that aren’t constant machine gun drumming and 999 notes per second are those Egyptian/Sumerian-accentuated melodies that Nile/Behemoth have driven into the ground for a decade or so. The songs occasionally feature those sweeping fills (have I mentioned Behemoth?) and the high-precision start/stop breakdowns that Krisiun have made so commonplace, but good luck telling any of them apart. Replacing departed vocalist Francesco Paoli who jumped ship for Fleshgod Apocalypse, new singer Paolo Pieri (Aborym, Malfeitor) does his best… you guessed it… Nergal impression. Phrasing his rapid-fire vocal vomit as best he can to the rapid-fire musical blur behind him, he isn’t the problem. The reason Sedition fails is because it contains no actual songs. For all its impressive technical prowess and inhuman speed, it doesn’t lend itself to one memorable second.
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