Eye Of Purgatory – The Lighthouse
Release Date: 18th June 2021
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal.
FFO: Impious, Edge Of Sanity, Blackguard.
Review By: Ian Sky
Opening remarks: Let’s start by stating the obvious fact that Rogga Johansson could hold a clinic on immaculate Death Metal vocals and his effort on this release is bang on! Beyond that, Eye Of Purgatory‘s follow-up to their 2018 release The Rotting Enigma sees the welcome additions of bassist Jeramie Kling (Venom Inc.) and Taylor Nordberg (Ribspreader) on drums and keyboards, both of whom absolutely dominated! The album is packed with tight, melodic, rapid-fire riffs, solid breakdowns and steadily hammering drums. While the keyboards add an almost Neo-classical element that complements the lyrical themes of abysmal horror quite well. The production is crushing, clean and sharp. The music is brutally heavy and varied enough while adhering to its central Swedish Death Metal themes that it never even comes close to crossing the line into redundancy. And yet the album seems almost familiar as if stepping into a comfortable pair of ass kicking boots!
Cross Examination: The music on The Lighthouse is by no means stripped down but despite its robust layers, it does leave you wanting in a few areas. Guitar solos are suspiciously absent for a group with such talent and experience. The keyboards (Which I’ll admit somehow reminded me of Europe) tend to overwhelm the rest of the music at times and as a result, what begins as haunting harmonies become daunting overtones. Thus causing the sound to be more of a competitor of those parts than a compliment to them. However, at the end the cacophony does fall into place and all the individual parts are so well played that there’s almost a light touch of Jazz under all that Death!
Closing statements: Removing my personal desire to hear shredding solos capable of making ears bleed, I cannot find fault with Eye Of Purgatory‘s latest effort. They wrote, they played, they killed it with an album that crashes in waves and I am looking forward to hearing more from them in the future!
Verdict: If you’re after some tasty Swedish Death cuisine then while The Lighthouse isn’t exactly a Scandinavian feast for your ears, it is still a goddamn solid meal! 
(3.5 / 5)
