Review of Impious - Holy Murder Masquerade

I was introduced to Sweden’s Impious with 2004’s release, Hellucinate. That album was a violent, modern thrasher, in the vein of Carnal Forge, but with a little more adventurism. They’ve expanded their boundaries further on Holy Murder Masquerade, a concept album about that topic so near and dear to us all…Murder. All of their previous elements remain, but the tempo has been slowed down just a touch. A few songs, if not epic, are certainly more melodic.

Impious chose a great song to begin the record with. “The Confession” builds up slowly with effectively simple riffing until the chorus climaxes at 1:10. Martin’s atonal shout complements the atmosphere of this track nicely. The production amplifies their anguish, with sharp guitar tones, audible bass, and crisp drumming. “T.P.S.” is endearingly messy, focusing on speed and shredding over coherence. “Three of One” is heavy on the groove, even as it mixes in short acoustic breaks. A couple of others miss the mark by lacking excitement by being simply fast for fast’s sake, or like the title track, which plods along interminably, trying harder to sound scary than to sound good. “Dark Closure” does slow much better, beginning in a doom manner, which rises and falls in intensity. They tease you with a galloping riff early on for all of a few seconds, but bring it back halfway through the song and let it develop into a nice jam session complete with a harmonized solo.

Holy Murder Masquerade signals a minor change in a more refined direction for Impious, at least from my limited knowledge of the band. Whether it is a permanent shift, or just an experiment, remains to be seen. If you seek the raw fury of Hellucinate, you’ll find it in songs like “Purified by Fire” and “Everlasting Punishment”, but if you seek more variety in your death/thrash, that is here too. HMM is another worthy release from Impious.

Release Details

Impious

Holy Murder Masquerade

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