RATING: 8.5/10
It’s been nine years since Finnish melodic death metal band Megiddon released their EP Incidents Before the Time. But they definitely haven’t lost their touch with their newest release Covered In Blood, Burning Inside. This is some great melodic death metal – hard-hitting, technical and fantastically played.
The album starts off with “The Signal” which starts off with a mid-paced riff before the drums blasts it into high geear with the double-bass kicks. The mix of the death metal vocals and clean vocals is nice. Although the clean vocals seem a bit tinny in the mix. But the lyrics are very straight-forward: “In this world there is no one else/who is able to give me salvation/There is no one else that stands forever/You are The Way, The Truth and The Life.” “Necrosis of Conscience” jumps on you just as “The Signal” finishes and doesn’t let you down. This is a great tune with lots of places where the listener can headbang and do windmills with their hair. “Carry My Heart” keeps bringing the brutalness with a bit of a groove feel to it. It stays heavy while showing some more technical prowess of the band. There are also some symphonic elements used to add to the atmosphere. “Sela” is an instrumental piece with an acoustic guitar and strings. It’s a very moving and stirring piece – very worhshipful. “The Flame That Burns Within” jumps right back in and throw you back into the death metal fray. An earlier version was released on Ice Scream: Finnish Metal Compilation. But this version has a much fuller sound – leaps and bounds over the previous version. The guitars have a thicker sound and the drumming is much more technical. “Trial of Our Lies” starts out rather different with just the drums and bass providing a backbeat before the guitars join in before the full assult starts about 30 seconds into the song. I really like it when they switch vocals to a more guttural style instead of their typical shouting vocal style. It gives the song a good variety. There are even some clean vocals as well. “Path of Blessing” takes the music from “Sela”, expands it and add some vocals. And there are some great lyrics in it: “You are the light that shines into my darkest night/You show me how to know what’s wrong and what is right/You are beloved to me. I love you, you’re my own/You are the blessing on my path, given from above.” “Miniature Life Protection” sounds like it could be a Renascent song with its driving beats and excellent riffing. And it’s very deep as well as it deals with the lyricist looking into his own life and seeing that trying to remain happy and ignorance of his own fears and problems is worthless. “Me, A Wretched . . . ” is another instrumental but definitely much heavier than “Sela”. It starts out with the bass laying down a groove with cymbals adding touches here and there before a guitar lightly plays. And then the heaviness returns. You can almost hear the guitars mourning and lamenting. “Decipherment of the Past” turns the death metal back on. The opening of the song has some nice guitar riffs. The band is showing their technical prowess again in this song with the changing time signatures all while maintaining the overall brutalness. “My Final Breath” closes out the album in style, lasting for almost 8 minutes. It starts out with a lone guitar joined soon by some whispering vocals followed by a cello joining the guitar. The drums join in and everything starts to build until the drums throws it into high gear with the double bass kicks. And again the lyrics are fantastic: “You’ve been there just for me/Even if I’ve failed/So much affection you’ve put above me/I look at your bloody hands/Never could I expect that kind of a favour.” It truly is an uplifting song for those looking for hope.
Megiddon has given us a quality release with their first full length album. Hopefully we expect some more great melodic death metal from this talented Finnish band.
8.5 out of 10
