Who ever said that Death Metal songs had to be abrupt, ridiculously fast, and exceptionally short? Whatever the case, Costa Rica's DECEMBER'S COLD WINTER never got that memo, and we the listener are all the more fortunate for it. With only seven tracks, the band's second release clocks in at nearly a full hour, packed full of incredible rhythm-based guitar riffing, emphatic drum displays, and even with songs kicking the listener's head in for up to ten minutes a piece, at no point does the band get redundant or boring. It takes a brave group of musicians to delve into seven to ten minute Death Metal epics, and many have failed in the attempt; but DECEMBER'S COLD WINTER deliver an album far from failure in the form of "Ablaze All Shrines".

Imagine OPETH without the Progressive, acoustic and melodic vocal elements (in other words, BLOODBATH with much longer song durations), and you should have a decent estimate of what lays in wait within the folds of "Ablaze All Shrines". Moderately paced compositions that overflow with multiple tempo shifts, ever-thrashing double guitar riffing and appropriately tight, driving deliveries on bass and drums make it all too easy to get lost in the mastery of any given song, regardless of how long they are. Couple that with a potent double Death vocal attack, with one half manifesting the exceptionally vehement gruffness of DEICIDE's Glen Benton and the other half a hellish, higher register shriek akin to HYPOCRISY's Peter Tägtgren and you find yourself facing a decidedly electrifying album rising above a mass of countless indistinct Death Metal releases.

As you progress through each thick, dominating tune and all the twists and turns they portray, you'll find yourself torn between anxious curiosity about what the next song holds and the urge to hit the repeat button for a second blast of the dominatingly vicious vocals and high caliber riffage you just beheld. Whether it be "Your Sordid Pride", the stand out title track "Ablaze All Shrines", the monumental "Black Garden's Sculptures" or virtually any of the seven killer tunes that raise their heads on this Hydra of an album, the listener is guaranteed as much adrenaline overdose as they can handle. It may be that Costa Rica isn't one of the world's biggest Metal outlets, but the fact remains that few if any could withstand the chilling, furious blizzard of DECEMBER'S COLD WINTER.