Rating: 6.9

Country: India

Release Date: 2007

Track list:
1. Pathetic Ignorance
2. Necrophobia
3. Destined to Suffer
4. Dying Sun
5. Gathering of Lies
6. Life of Mortal
7. Victimized
8. Suicidal Corpse
9. Funeral Rites

Total playing time 26:31

Band Website: IIIrd Sovereign

IIIrd Sovereign - Destined to Suffer

Vedant - Vocals
Benjamin - Guitar
Reuben - Drums
Jonah - Bass

Pay attention folks, for this is an Indian band I'm writing about. IIIrd Sovereign hail from the shitty city of New Delhi and play old-fashioned death metal music that does not necessarily translate into old school. Prior to this they had released a fairly decent MCD named Horrified Visions which a friend of mine borrowed from me and failed to return. I did not remind him to do so either. But I was reasonably excited when I came to know about Destined to Suffer, their new full length album. My first impression upon acquiring the CD wasn't particularly great thanks to its lousy artwork depicting a disproportionate ape-like man whose naked body is very wrongly impaled with a cross. The drawing is very blurry, obscuring the man's face but surprisingly not his penis. I seriously suspect foul play.

Fortunately Destined to Suffer's music is much, much better. Its death metal has an agreeable thrash vibe to it and is highly energetic. If you can to overlook the short bass intro, you will observe that the album actually BEGINS with a vicious hook. It is easy to make out the band's eagerness to please, just like an obsequious Indian servant. Wisely, the band doesn't keep swinging shamelessly on that hook like a kid who ultimately gets nauseous and pukes, and soon utilises a slicing riff, at least for a while, before reverting to play that irresistible hook again. Later in the same song, the band also employs hacking Cannibal Corpse parts and a cool solo whose absence is tearfully missed in most of the other songs. “Necrophobia” and "Destined to Suffer” are reminiscent of Monstrosity with their healthy dose of thrashiness, maiming hooks, and crisp riffs that are sometimes tinged with melody especially in the title track. Flanked with dangerously oscillating Corpsegrinder era Cannibal Corpse hooks, “Dying Sun” has an admirable heavy chug part to which you position yourself in front of your speakers as you would in front of an air conditioner – to greedily derive the most out of it. By now it should be obvious that hooks form an inseparable feature of IIIrd Sovereign's music. One can imagine the band members to be in perpetual motion, constantly shaking their legs left and right, as though holding back their piss. “Gathering of Lies” exudes a palpable Malevolent Creation aura, what with the song breaking into their proud and rather distinctive style of intense deaththrash riffing. Next couple of songs follow the band's familiar pattern of over-punctuating their death metal compositions with hooks and never really letting go of the momentum. IIIrd Sovereign are actually very good at that, segueing a slower swaying part into a faster catchier one, which is like kicking a disco dancer from behind who darts forward while still shaking his hips. Towards the end, “Suicidal Corpse” proves to be a delightful song; bearing similarities to Sinister, it has chunky riffs, proficient pummelling and of course, hefty hooks. To it the fans will jump about in their room like agitated frogs.

Vedant's growls are deep and juicy, emanating from an upset stomach no doubt, but they seem to lose some of their forcefulness as they are funnelled upwards and projected through what sounds like a sore throat. The production, while not exactly weak, appears to have callously blunted the instruments. It makes the music sound as though it is being played in the adjoining room. The drums in particular sound muddled and lack the desired power, a real shame considering Reuben is one of the better drummers in the country. Still, it's not like the production has rendered the album unlistenable, and is arguably decent for its standards.

IIIrd Sovereign are a band from my beloved country India, so if you're expecting cutting-edge death metal innovation from them, you're an asshole. The music on Destined to Suffer is played with tremendous enthusiasm and zest, and even though the band tends to run out of ideas, it is pretty enjoyable if you're into their kind of intense Floridian-natured death metal.

July 15th, 2008