Filthy Music Review - 'Erimha: Reign through Immortality'

Erimha – Reign through Immortality (2013)

Victory Records

Review by Jude Felton

Victory Records latest signings, Erimha, hail from Montreal, Canada, and with Reign through Immortality have delivered there second album. This follows on from 2010’s Irkala, and shows a strong work ethic from a band that only formed in January of 2010.

Reign through Immortality does not mess about either, with its orchestral opening tune, Enlightenment, the Sumerian influenced band bail head first into Ascetic and never let up until the closing bars of the 10 minute Metempsychosis. Their brand of blackened death metal brings to mind quite a heavy Dimmu Borgir influence, although not quite so bombastic as the Norwegian veterans, there is definitely a nod to them throughout Reign’s running time.

Add into this mix a little Amon Amarth and you have an incredibly solid and well-rounded album. Each song has its own identity and is into on pummeling the listener into submission. Gore’s vocals altering between a rasping scream through to deep guttural bellows; there’s a quite obvious passion to the music on display here.

In terms of the overall sound Erimha most certainly lean towards the more accessible side of black and death metal but, make no bones about it, this is still quite ferocious stuff. Certainly, if the two aforementioned influences float your boat you are going to dig this, a lot.

Personally I found it to be an incredibly solid album that bears up to repeated listens; there’s plenty going here to get your ears around, and more importantly it gets the blood pumping through your veins.

I’ll admit to not knowing quite what to expect from Reign through Immortality, due mainly to this being quite a departure in terms of Victory’s other recent output, however I was pleasantly surprised. It may not set the world on fire in terms of bringing anything especially new to the table, in terms of music, but what Erimha do they do very well. This is blackened death metal, with a modern twist, done very well and as such comes as highly recommended.

Track List:
1. Enlightenment
2. Ascetic
3. Condemned to Desolation
4. Bewildering Nightmare
5. Metaphysic Countenance
6. The Ritual of Internicion
7. Verdict of the Soul
8. Saunter to Extinction
9. Cataclysmic Tides
10. Metempsychosis

Reign through Immortality is released by Victory Records on July 9th.