So here I sit trying in vain to separate by six or more degrees the connections between Bay Area thrash and NWOSHM. So far, I have gotten to the point where AT THE GATES pushed Metal on its collective ear then snapped its neck like so many twigs in a Norwegian forest, somehow knowing of the grimness oncoming. In that mess of synaptic backflips, something else happened...IMPIOUS happened.

IMPIOUS was formed back in 1994 and to be truthful, I just never paid attention to them. Like many, they became lumped in with IN FLAMES, DARK TRANQUILLITY, and THE HAUNTED - just another band with a similar sound and overall aesthetic (NWOAHM anyone???). And so it came to pass... their newest outing for Metal Blade, "Holy Murder Masquerade". The exclamation was certainly of the "Holy...!" variety.

The comparisons to ENTOMBED by liner note geeks just goes without saying because "Holy Murder Masquerade" is a concept album with the lyrics told in the style of a pulp comic book. A nifty idea, though done once before, and it is this that is the album's most glaring downfall. The story is muddled, time lines do not work at all, and the lyrical themes are difficult to follow. Oh, and the voiceover is just bothersome. The music, though, is why we review so here we go. Masks on, try to guess who wins the bloodbath ball...

Beginning with more of an assertion of might than admittance of wrongdoing, "The Confession" bursts forth with all the subtlety of a habanero pepper crushed into an eye socket. Guitars churn like butter and fat to make thick brew of truly tasty Metal that is ripe to spread upon the toast of heavy, somehow channelling MAIDEN before cracking the listener's skull with a groove larger than the Grand Canyon. Next up is "Bound To Bleed (For A Sacred Need)". This tune is bound to make many chiropractors very, very happy. With a lock-step groove that honestly sounds like something out of DISMEMBERS's "Death Metal", the song just does not let up. "T.P.S." very nearly verges on grind territory, being about as fast as melodeath can get before juggling genres like John Wayne Gacey with fingerpaints. The rest of the album continues in kind and then kindly drops dead for 0:42 for the completely useless "Slaughtertown Report", an exercise in tedium designed to advance a story with more holes in than a victim of Vlad. After this slight misstep, the album finishes strong with a hearty bang of the head in closer "Dark Closure". All in all, "Holy Murder Masquerade" is a very good effort and surely one of the standout performances for Swedish Death Metal in the year of our invisible grapefruit, 2007. Recommended listening.