CoC : Thanatos - Angelic Encounters : Review

Thanatos - _Angelic Encounters_
(Hammerheart, 2001)
by: Kirsty Buchanan (8 out of 10)

With the opening title track standing at an immense, thundering six minutes, Thanatos immediately grab your attention; it is merely a pity the following track makes little or no attempt to emulate this and thus carry the listener through the album. However, after a faltering beginning, _Angelic Encounters_ just gets better and better. I have never heard anything quite as intense as "Sincere Chainsaw Salvation" or "Gods of War". The combined experience of the musicians does not, as I would have imagined, lessen the experience of the record; it is often possible for bands to seem stale and somewhat stagnant if suffering from age, not so Thanatos. Their experience seems to have given them the ability to take stock of the Dutch death metal scene and release something worthy of great praise. The drumming is astoundingly performed with seemingly the greatest of skill and ease; "The Howling" stands as a prime example of the ex-Sinister stickman's ability. The wittily titled "Thou Shalt Rot" closes this musical journey in much the way it began: with a lengthy but proficient aural pleasure.

(article published 10/1/2001)

ALBUMS
3/5/2000	A Bromley	8.5	Thanatos - Emerging From the Netherworlds

DEMOS
5/19/1999	P Azevedo	4	Thanatos - Melegnia