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Coming out of nowhere, these Finnish bastards blew my head away with their very interesting mix of melodic death metal and some selected (yet killer) power metal parts. This is the second full-length by the Turku-based quintet and quickly became one of my favorite albums of the year so far, mainly because of the surprisingly mature approach to an already stacked and repetitive genre. There's absolutely no room for Children of Bodom-style wankery here, and instead the songs are filled with memorable, powerful elements that are well defined as melodic death, but with a twist of their own.

The combination of melodeath with power metal works like a charm and actually provides for the best tracks here, like the melodic "Brothers" and the bombastic "Shadows and Dust". Hell, even the ballad "Ghosts of Our Past" is fucking awesome, so you know that these dudes are not joking around.

Highly skilled, clearly mature and with a rare knack for non-repetitive songwriting, Gladenfold have made in When Gods Descend a statement that they're definitely a band to keep an eye on. Highly recommended.