Redemptor – Agonia
Release Date: 3rd December 2021
Label: Selfmadegod Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Technical Death Metal.
FFO: Gorguts, Morbid Angel, Immolation, Death, Ulcerate, Agalloch.
Review By: Eric Wilt
Hailing from Kraków, Poland, Redemptor has been churning out death metal in one form or another for over two decades. Founded by Daniel Kesler in 2001, Redemptor has been able to keep the core of the band, which is made up of Kesler on guitar and vocals, Michał Xaay Loranc on vocals, and Hubert Więcek on guitar, intact for half of their twenty-year existence. Joining Kesler, Loranc, and Wiecek in the studio for their new album is Daniel Rutkowski on drums and Kamil Stadnicki on bass.
Agonia is Redemptor’s fourth full length album. Arriving four years after their previous full length, Arthaneum, Agonia was recorded at Zed Studios by Tomasz Zalewski.
In my music library, an album like Agonia would fall into a category I call progressive death metal. On the one hand, Redemptor’s new album is definitely grounded in technical death metal, but they incorporate dissonant and atmospheric metal in such a way that it feels like they are pushing technical death metal forward. At times punishing, at times beautiful, Agaonia is not an album for the passive listener. The songs reveal themselves through multiple listens, proving that Redemptor is not just making music, they are making art.
Highlights of the album include Potion of the Skies, which even includes a riff or two that would make a post-hardcore band jealous. While Excursis Ignus spends a minute-and-a-half lulling the listener into a beautiful, atmospheric dreamscape that would be at home on an Agalloch album, before blasting off with some ferocious riffs that you would swear are being played by Morbid Angel. Closing out the album, Les Ruines Des Pompei builds to a crescendo at the end of the track where both sides of Redemptor, the beautiful and the beastly, meet for one last, grand eruption.
Overall, Agonia sees Redemptor continuing down the path they trod on Arthaneum. With the brutality of Morbid Angel, the dissonance of Ulcerate, and the beauty and atmospherics of Agalloch, Redemptor’s new opus will have fans coming back again and again for repeated listens. And, there is no doubt that the listener will be rewarded each time.
(4 / 5)
