DEATH HEAVEN Viral apocalypse Review

DEATH HEAVEN (Italy) – Viral apocalypse
CD 2007 – Punishment 18 Records
11 tracks - 72'01
Rated: 8/10
I reviewed a three-promo-track on PEZ#4, and later BRN sent me a promo of the full album. I had a positive opinion back then and listening to the whole album I must say I'm still impressed by these guys' skills (and that's why you can read a cool intie elsewhere in these pages!).
But one must know about DEATH HEAVEN that this band plays modern, technical and brutal death metal and that they are not afraid to experiment and give diversity to their music.
The intro itself can give you a chill with the female vocals (reminding OBSCENITY on the « Third Chapter ») but as the following track can prove, this is really death metal inside, ahah!!
The album is more than one hour long, so you will need several listenings to absorb and get fully infected by this viral load of death metal. If you like complex death metal with brutal parts and some nice atmospheres, you will find some worthy substance in there. Hard to give you a perfect description but think about a meeting between DEATH (« the sound of perseverance » for the technical aspect), NEURAXIS and CRYPTOPSY (for the modern and brutal aspect), OPETH (for the use of acoustic parts), NILE (for creating similar atmospheres, especially on the track « Sacrificial ritual of the Ugarit dead ») and many more depending on your tastes...but really DEATH HEAVEN is worth to be check out. Surely sometimes you felt oppressed by so many things at a time and the tracks' length, but the slower and more atmospheric parts really create majestic and mind catching moments. DEATH HEAVEN shows that it's still possible to create interesting and solid death metal without bastardizing it with wimpy elements.
Info: http://www.punishment18records.com/
http://www.myspace.com/deathheavenofficial