Band:	Vengeful
Album:	Karma
Style:	Technical death metal
Release date:	2007

01. Sentenced
02. Cold Ways
03. Burial
04. Counterfeit Deity
05. Burial Pt.2
06. Cleansing
07. Karma
08. Tempted

A big round of applause to the surprise of the month. This piece proves one thing straight, you don't have to be mainstream to release one of the most interesting Death Metal albums of the year; now we know Disconcert Music has a very good ear for new bands emerging out of nowhere, kinda obvious when we realize that the leader of this label is a member of Quo Vadis

Vengeful plays Death metal with an edge, the kind that delivers chaotic shapes, technical execution and a lot of melodic/acoustic passages. It almost sounds a little like a younger Martyr or a modern Capharnaum, music with a lot of layers and a huge selection of riffs that fit perfectly with the intricate songwriting...one which is very uplifting by the way, the band twists and turns their structures almost as a random soundscape, the breakdowns are more than just traditional pauses and fillers, they all come wrapped with an odd twitch that always adds a "memorable" pattern in the songs. In other words, the songwriting is what makes this band so interesting, the album just never gets boring, not even in the long (8 minutes) tracks, and in Death Metal that's actually saying a lot.

The execution is a melee of tight guitar work, loud bass-lines and battering drums, but something surely stole the spotlight here, the vocal-work, there's actually one tone in this album that literally sounds unimaginably painful and bloody, you'll instantly notice it when you hear the album. The rest of the instruments are great as I already said, I don't want to praise them a lot because the album could use some complex solos or maybe some irregular time signatures and I didn't find any whatsoever.

All in all this is a very good album, solid metal with a lot of interesting features, it's very fresh and it actually breaks the envelops of today's Death Metal. Maybe it won't move the minds of Gothic rockers or Power fanatics, but the extreme ears will be pleased that's for sure.