Description

Orange vinyl with printed innersleeve

Originating from the Netherlands, this amalgamation of death and thrash metal is a brutal one indeed. The vocals are low demonic death chants which are nearly impossible to decipher without the written lyrics, but great for the overall context of the music they make. Dark and heavy, the guitars are tuned down considerably low in true old school European death metal style, reminiscent of Asphyx, who is an obvious influence. The difference between Asphyx and Thanatos is that Thanatos adds much more of a thrash element into their death metal approach, making it more interesting in my opinion. The first four songs are all memorable and very well played. You can listen to them all without wanting to skip any one of them. The lyrics on this album aren’t particularly great, but the music makes up for it. For example, the song “In Praise of Lust” apparently is an ode to orgies and the lyrics are not going to be winning any Pullitzer prizes any time soon; “Forever forced to fuck the shit out of each other” is an example of the lyrical retardation which is scattered throughout this release. The music is quite good though so the ineptitude of their word play only detracts a certain amount of re-playability. I guess with an album title of “Realm of Ecstacy”, you can automatically assume they might not be the greatest of English translators, or they really have an affinity for porn. “Perpetual Misery” luckily is a lot better lyric wise than it’s predecessor; the music is also quite a bit slower than the previous parts of the album, but the solo is quite good. “Human Combustion” is musically one of my favorite tracks on this album: sincere death vocals over thrash influenced death metal riffs with pounding double bass drums. The song is metaphorically comparing heroin overdose with human combustion and the lyrics are quite good. The guitar playing on this song is some of my favorite on the entire album and it’s songs like this which separate Thanatos from a lot of other obscure European death/thrash bands. “Reincarnation” continues the gore theme and the riffs are grindcore in nature with blast beats galore, this would be the third excellent song in a row. The technical guitar solo in “Reincarnation” however shows the predominant death metal structure contained in all of their songs. “Terminal Breath” is the last song on the album (if you have the original release; the re-released version features four songs off of the demo which I cannot comment on.). The last song also very good, and at six minutes, one of the longest songs on the album along with the first song on the album. This song has a very doom like atmosphere (showing the range of musical styles contained within this forty minute long album), but is also very death metal in nature. As with every song on this album, the guitar solo is fucking killer and the song progresses through several riffs which are all satisfying. After it’s all said and done, “Realm of Ecstacy” is so well musically performed that I just need to rank it high and its an album that undoubtedly can grow upon any death metal or thrash metal fan.

Track list:
1. And Jesus Wept
2. Tied Up Sliced Up
3. Realm Of Ecstacy
4. Mankinds Afterbirth
5. In Praise Of Lust
6. Perpetual Misery
7. Human Combustion
8. Reincarnation
9. Terminal Breath