Attempting to follow up from their debut, Croatian death metallers Hereza have brought a more refined and devastating attack to their vibrant sound which has brought a far more impressive and dynamic variation which makes this a surprisingly strong offering. With the duo offering a strong collection of material, their sophomore full-length was released February 13, 2017 on Godz ov War Productions.
As is expected from this attack, the band is keeping their old-school riffing style in strong outbursts throughout this release which gives this a strong outcome. Efforts like the title track, Full Moon Slaughter and Pošast are based on tight, furious churning patterns that offer a darkened atmosphere prevalent in the scene and is frankly given plenty of strong support by the lengthier rhythm sections to generate plenty of enjoyable elements here. Even on the shorter tracks that pop up throughout here as in Jebem Vas u Usta ‘ladna, Uništi, pali, ruši and Torn from the Death’s Bed, this series of tight riffing allows for an even more devastating charge with the focus more on driving the rhythms along for the tracks’ duration rather than breaking it up with varying breakdowns or extended sections as the fury unleashed takes on an approach similar to the Swedish scene with the ravenous riffing being brought to the forefront. This charge comes off much better in that context, although it does highlight one of the main flaws here in that the album’s overall brevity which does make the tracks seem all too short in light of being just barely over a minute long, and almost all the tracks in here being between two and three minutes makes this feel just way too short, with the shortened tracks really just being way too obvious here that it holds this back slightly. However, it’s really the only issue with this one.
Offering plenty of rather strong elements throughout here even if they’re somewhat slightly undone by the overall brevity of the bands’ approach, this one manages to offer a far stronger and much more enjoyable variation of their style that’ll be appreciated by all fans of their previous work or old-school death fanatics in general. 8.5/10
