Rating: 7.9

Country: England

Release Date: 2005

Track list:
1. Devil’s Disciple
2. Stigmartysm
3. Requiem For The Haunted Heart
4. Empyrean (Circle Of God)
5. Suzanna
6. Misery Serenade
7. The Eighth Deadly Sin

Band Website: Centurion's Ghost

Centurion's Ghost - A Sign For Things To Come

James Begley- Vocals
Dan 138- Guitar
Andrew Berycz- Guitar
Richard Whittaker- Bass
Gareth Millsted- Drums

Lovers of Celtic Frost drudge, sludge and bludgeon certainly have been spoilt for choice this season- Unearthly Trance issued an OUTSTANDING sophomore slab of bowel-loosening, stomach-knotting, thoroughly upsetting 'Morbid-Tales'-on-serious-downers DOOM while Usurper's 'Cryptobeast' updated the Chicago veterans' formerly formulaic blueprint of Fischer emulation, chucking a healthy dose of modern heft and depth into a stew of veritably ancient leanings. As stalwarts continued to stake their claim towards metallic immortality, the likes of Coffins and Gallhammer steered attention towards Japanese shores, the former merging dystopian 'Into Darkness' dreariness with 'Circle Of The Tyrants' stomp, the latter twisting Amebix's 'Arise' and 'Triumph Of Death' into a gnarly, barbed burst of barbarity. If you're anything like me (Ie you know the lyrics to 'To Mega Therion' just as well as you know the alphabet), the year has been pregnant with pleasant surprises, and, truth be told, England's Centurion's Ghost certainly deserves its place among the most orgasmic revelations of 2005.

Stylistically, this isn't a million miles away from the skulking, heavy-hoofed trample of Thee Plague Of Gentlemen's ''Primula Pestis' in approach- the bass tone is similarly punishing, the mix is similarly claustrophobic/oppressive, the low-end on the guitars accentuated and amplified, coagulating with the bass frequencies to form a monstrously overwhelming torrential outpour that positively seeps out of the subwoofers. Bass drums throb and surge as cymbals struggle to assert themselves in a muddy, murky mire. The bog-like boogie contained within this record is highly reminiscent of Usurper's on 'Skeletal Season' (their absolute masterpiece), though slightly more clearly defined and really, more powerful. Similarities to Chicago's premier death metal troupe don't end there, for the stampeding, stallion-like gallop of “Devil's Disciple” bears great parallels to Usurper's own brand of churning malevolence. Yet, beneath the (rather impenetrable) layer of pound and ground, one can also detect a rocking, irrepressible latter-day Cathedral (ie 'Endtyme') groove, a likeness further emphasized by James Begley's Lee-Dorrian-with-an-attitude-problem vocalizations and wild adlibs. A fucking SCORCHER of a track, really, with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the solar plexus.

After what appears to be an absolute throwaway of an ambient interlude (“Stigmartysm”, an exercise in minimalistic bells-and-chimes wankery and ritualistic chanting), “Requiem For The Haunted Heart” opens with insidious, ominous single-note chugging, seemingly boding promise for another exercise in Dethroned-Emperor-as-seen-through-The-VIIth-Coming rockingness. Lo and behold, a fucking GREAT/cavernous/painfully bare Candlemass-esque passage, juxtaposing lumbering power chords with a clean, distant, mournful lead guitar. WOW. Fast forward to “Empyrean (Circle Of God)”, and we are faced with a compromise between the gutwrenching, spleen-liquidating charge of “Devil's Disciple” and the more sophisticated poesy of “Requiem For The Haunted Heart”, a midtempo barnstormer that peppers a single, repetitious, monolithic groove with ornate, surprisingly literate swathes of trebly, melodic lead guitar.

It is at this point that you realize just how consummately conceived/executed these songs are, the band never allows a groove to outstay its welcome, interspersing droning, repetitive passages with bursts of stunningly haunting melody. Song lengths are succinct, each composition sharply honed for maximum malevolence. Any album deeply entrenched in 'Epicus Doomicus' and 'Triumph Of Death' territory runs the risk of lulling the listener into a somnambulistic haze, but not this beauty- the likes of “Misery Serenade” and “Requiem For The Haunted Heart” succeed thanks to the band's seemingly insuppressible understanding of riff, groove and composition, while the more uptempo numbers allow the songwriters to flaunt this sensitivity in a delightfully gratuitous fashion. This album is hazardous to your neck, I can tell you this much.

All in all, an absolute winner of a record, though I do have certain problems with labeling this as a full length record, largely because it contains but 5 full-fledged tracks, the other 2 being throwaway instrumental interludes, one of which rather disrupts the continuity of the proceedings (“Stigmartysm”). Ingested as an EP, free from the pointless ornamentation of “Stigmartysm” and “Suzanna”, 'A Sign Of Things To Come' could quite likely be among the most vicious, frighteningly potent statements issued this year. Bilious, blatant, brilliant.

November 3rd, 2005