Rating: 3.0

Country: Poland

Release Date: 2007

Record Label: Vitriolic Records/Self Released

Track list:
1. Serpents Entwined
2. Idols Fall
3. Host Age to the Devil
4. That Which Serves...
5. Evil I
6. Temple of the Sun of Non
7. Pariah Messiah
8. Rev-Elation
9. Relish the Hellish
10. The Impact
11. I of One Am Many

Total Playing Time: 48:09

Band Website: Terminal Descent

Terminal Descent - Host Age to the Devil

Tony Mikkelson - Vocals, Guitars, Drum Programming

Unmistakably old-school, Tony Mikkelson's solo project arises for its third full-length outing. Cue cheering from a small but cult group of Terminal Descent followers that appreciate the efforts of a single musician to weave an abstract world of the obscure that sounds totally unlike anything else coming out of the death metal genre. This rampant and rabid group are the sole reason I've given this disc several dozen listens, for if I were not a reviewer I would have binned this long ago. Yes, it sounds different and yes, there are no questions regarding the integrity of Mikkelson's vision. In the art world this can be more than enough, but where extreme metal is concerned an emotional response must be provoked (whether that response is euphoria, anger, horror or any number of phobias). This album will pass you by in the same ethereal manner of its arrival.

The first two tracks are frankly appalling, with banal harmonisation, cacophonous random soloing and arthritic delivery. The title track has some welcome zip to it, helped with the careful application of guitar effects, plus more successful atonal harmony. The old-school thrash leanings continue into the fourth track but with a more solemn tone and with more liquidity and haughtiness. If you squeeze your eyes really tight and grit your teeth you might be fooled into thinking the later parts of "Evil I" are pre-Abominations of Desolation Morbid Angel. Azagthoth aesthetics (scratchy, agitated, harmonics/effects laden) are present in the leadwork here and the predominant forgettable shrieks and growls are dropped for a more charismatic Mike Browning style.

Just when things start to sound more confident, "Temple of the Sun of Non" brings in a deserved pelt of rotten tomatoes; it really should have the title caveat "(How not to write a solo)". Pathetic. "Pariah Messiah" is unintentionally funny. One of a couple of dodgy grooves is present here, with an utterly dreadful cheesy melody that will make your cheeks turn beetroot coloured. The climactic peak of this song is a hilariously screwed up harmony that makes me visualise a choir of tiny rodents doing karaoke. This is not death metal, it is as opposite to menacing as you can possibly get. "Rev-Elation" tickles the ribs of a man already down on the floor laughing, terminating with an Immolation style tapping solo that could have been played by Bob Vigna himself (if he'd had his hands crushed in a vice first).

At least the album ends on a relative high, expelling maximum energy in unlimited old-school worship. The off-kilter atonalities and leadwork are appropriately subtle for the song and don't sound lumpy and embarrassing for a change. The slavish beat-for-beat kitchen utensil sound of the drumkit (apart from the bass-flooding floor tom) and the boxey proto-fuzz guitars (making early Celtic Frost sound Meshuggah-heavy by comparison) are less noticeable here due to better song dynamics.

Something like this should have a perverse charm about it, but detailed listens cause the fabric to unravel horribly. If I'd written this I would never have put my face on the cover art. Host Age to the Devil sounds like it was made by a weird old hermit, one that had heard a few early death metal albums prior to moving into a cave twenty years ago, fuelled ever since by a strict diet of mountain goat droppings and rabbit urine.

May 7th, 2008