UMUR
"Millennium" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, Florida based death metal act Monstrosity. The album was released through Conquest Music in August 1996. It´s the successor to "Imperial Doom" from 1992 and features a couple of lineup changes since the predecessor as bassist Mark Van Erp has been replaced by Kelly Conlon (formerly of Death), and guitarists Jason Gobel and Jon Rubin has been replaced by Jason Morgan (who handles all guitars on the album). The two remaining members of lineup who recorded the predecessor are band leader and drummer Lee Harrison and lead vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher. The latter had already left Monstrosity before the release of "Millennium" though as he joined Cannibal Corpse in 1995.
Monstrosity had problems finding a label to release a new album after their collaboration with Nuclear Blast Records ended and they even had to record and release a demo in 1994 to shop for a new label, which was quite unusual for a US, Florida based death metal act in the early 90s. Most artists from that scene were given the opportunity to release at least a couple of albums.
The material on "Millennium" pretty much continue the brutal old US school death metal style of "Imperial Doom (1992)". Downtuned heavy riffs, powerful drumming (both fast-paced and mid-paced heavy beats), and Fisher´s brutal growling and occasionally higher pitched screaming vocals in front. There is a high level of profesionalism and skill behind the performances, which was typical for the American bands from that time and everything is executed with precision and attention to detail. "Millennium" is fairly well produced too, although the sound production is a bit dense and could have prospored from more room to breathe (I was a bit surprised to learn that the album was produced by Scott Burns). It´s the songwriting which brings the album down a bit though. The tracks are simply too standard fare US death metal and very few tracks stand out on both the album and the genre as a whole. "Fragments of Resolution" stand out a bit though because of its heavy mid-paced nature and the fact that Frank Mullen from Suffocation guests on backing vocals, but that´s not much to hold on to in terms of quality. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.