UMUR
"Awakening of the Gods" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Seance. The album was released through Pulverised Records in January 2009. Seance were formed in 1990 and released two studio albums before disbanding in 1998. Three of the five members who played on the band´s second full-length studio album "Saltrubbed Eyes (1993)" reunited in 2008: Miqūe Flesh (drums), Tony "Toxine" Vargfrost (guitars), and Johan Larsson (vocals, bass). They added second guitarist Rille Rimfalt to the ranks and recorded "Awakening of the Gods" as a four-piece.
Stylistically Seance pretty much pick up where they left off on "Saltrubbed Eyes (1993)". It´s relatively diverse death metal, with quite a few thrash metal influences in the riffs and rhythms (and even the occassional traditional heavy metal/hard rock influnced moment), but also a few nods towards deathgrind. The latter is a minor part of the band´s sound, but there are a couple of fast blasting parts featured on the album, which point in that direction. It´s not an album which follows a particular style/scene sound (for example old school Swedish death metal, or the more technical US variant), but it´s not a unique sounding release either. The vocals are deep growling, but the growls are unfortunately a bit one-dimensional in style. The instrumental part of the music is very well executed.
"Awakening of the Gods" features a raw and powerful sound production, and the songwriting is also of a decent quality. That doesn´t mean that it´s an outstanding release by any means, but it´s a solid release, which is enjoyable enough while it plays. It´s pretty much the same feeling I had listening to their preceding releases. Solid death metal, but not outstanding. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.