Rating: 2.5

Country: Italy

Release Date: 2007

Record Label: Promoted by Necrotorture Agency

Track list:
1. At the Gates of Confusion
2. Ghost
3. Dead Flesh
4. Towers of Repugnance
5. Hell in the Cell
6. Fucking Spiritual Priest

Total Playing Time: 28:57

Band Website: Confusion Gods

Confusion Gods - At the Gates of Confusion

Pier - Vocals
Difu - Guitar
Max - Guitar
Tommy - Bass
Pizzo - Drums

This underground EP kicks off like an undiscovered early Cradle of Filth demo, a 3/4 rapid-picked melody being counterbalanced with a slower 4/4 harmony. Shrieks, grunts and growls rotate according to mood which ranges from the solemn to the soothing (acoustic arpeggios) and incorporates very basic elements of Scandinavian melodic thrash/death. And that is the best it gets.

Apart from short snippets of the likes of Rotting Christ and Paradise Lost, identifying influences is a tricky task, not because the band have their own identity. Far from it, most of this EP is so generic and trite that just about any half-baked melodic metal band could be blamed for inspiring this insipid lot. Their strongest ability, that of being able to construct smoothly flowing songs that do not loiter in pointlessness is utterly negated by the absolute familiarity fused with an all-round amateur performance and production.

A bit harsh maybe? Perhaps if they were full of the naivety of youth. But this band have been around for 10 years so their lack of development is exceptionally disappointing, not to say exasperating. There is no excuse for the sloppiness exhibited here with undemanding material - if this is the limit of their songwriting prowess they should be wringing every damned chord and slicing their way through it with everything they've got. Instead we have a decidedly limp lettuce that becomes illegible rather than exciting when the drums accelerate. A palpable switch/cable noise during a moderately atmospheric bass and clean guitar break during the last song is the rancid cherry on a mouldy cake.

To offer some constructive criticism I would suggest that the band play a more sorrowful doom-orientated style because the slower they play the more convincing they are. They have a lot of work to do before they can even reach the dizzy heights of being an average band.

January 10th, 2008