Sacralis - Infera Destino (2000)

    With a soft and atmospheric intro starts "Infera Destino", the one and only full-lenght album of Sacralis, a German female death band. But the following song may cast the listener straight into the most putrid pit of death metal. If the sudden change didn't cause any trauma, it's able to lead to an excellent death metal material.
   On their  previous EP "bortaS" the introducing atmosphere followed the music in the background and almost got lost because of the noisy and aggresive sound. Only had a role to confuse the listener, because it simply didn't fit to the music to create the desired contrast. Fortunately they avoided this little problem here, and their musical skills had some development too. The album has very enjoyable dirty sound, and lies somewhere between old school and doom influenced death metal. They operated mainly with mid speed, common slow downs and occasional hammerings, and their riffings are often including the heaviness and strong effect of death/doom. The main impression is still very intense and the common speed changes increasing this intensiveness. The vocal style is epic and inhuman, lies somewhere between growling and black metal styled vocals. The main feeling is very dark and unfriendly, but "Infera Destino" has plenty of exciting surprises by it's simple and diverse themes, and extended song lenghts for the lovers of musickness. It was definitely the best death metal record of the year and a promising start for the new millenia.