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This is another fine release from Adipocere, so no surprise it's a French Black Metal band. Destinity boast of adding some Death Metal stylings to their sound this time out, and while that is hardly a new idea, these guys have done it in a way that manages to sound new and exciting.

This is almost exactly a 50/50 mix of Dimmu/Emperor style melodic BM with a US-style technical DM sound. Surprisingly, Destinity sound almost nothing like Naglfar or Behemoth or a dozen other Black Metal bands mixing these styles. Usually, when a BM band goes deathy, it means they ditch the tremolo riffing and deepen their vocals while keeping the satan lyrics and face paint, but that's not what they did here. What we have here is a mix of the two styles in total. Destinity have traditional BM tremolo riffing, also chunky death riffs with technical drums (the drumwork here is very good overall) deep death style bellows mixed with raspy shrieks, and all of it laid over with Dimmu-style keys. The result is a sound that is a bit overloaded in places, but that is never dull and always keeps you interested. You can almost literally never tell what in Hell these guys are going to do next, as they travel from pounding double-bass Death Metal blasts to melodic key interludes with acoustic/Spanish guitar flourishes, even the occasional industrial touch and bit of clean vocals.

This everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach does get a little too busy at times, but unlike Dimmu Borgir, Destinity keep on track and rarely lose their grip on the overall song. While they are not as good as, say, Ninnghizhidda, they have produced a fine, solid disc of extreme metal that sounds distinctive and fresh, which is quite a feat. Lyrically this band is an almost total loss, as their English is so spotty they range from garbled to silly ("Forceps Of Hate"? Good song, but what is up with that?) But as usual with extreme metal, you can't make out the lyrics, so they can be safely ignored.

So those exclusively into grim and necro Black Metal may not care for this, but fans of more melodic BM or Death Metal who are looking for a band that does not sound like every other fucking band should give these guys a look. This is an impressive album from a band that are doing their own thing, and it's well worth checking out.