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Even though Demigod's debut album 'The Slumber of Sullen Eyes' ranks right up there in my all time favorite Scandinavian Death Metal albums ever, I was disappointed by the 2nd release of these Finnish Death Metallers. It was to be expected of course, taking into account the fact that there was a ten year gap between the two albums, not to mention a number of line up changes affecting the overall sound of the band.

Released 5 years after their somewhat sub-standard sophomore release 'Shadow Mechanics', 'Let Chaos Prevail' — the band's 3rd album — shows a touch more promise. Musically, it's still very different from their classic debut, but it's much easier to stomach this time around due to the fact there seems to be a marked improvement in song writing, and a few signs of past glories here and there when it comes to riff work. Although a lot cleaner and sterile sounding that their eerie debut (well, it's bound to be isn't it — it's not 1992 anymore), Demigod still manage to pound and crush, even with the huge swathes of melody saturating the music. The multi-tracked guitar work skids around like a jack-knifing juggernaut, underpinned by huge sounding drum battery and crushing bass work throughout the album, with guitars teaming up to pour forth viscous evil twin melodies as riffs, as Tuomas bellows his guts out about death, destruction and your usual tales of the macabre.

The vocals are a bit of a sticking point for me, as at times they seem to adopt a 'hardcore'-like bark at times (think Carnal Forge rather than Morbid Angel) - not my cup of tea really. But with that said, they fall in and out of phase between that and the regular 'accepted' Death Metal cookie monster growl, so it's not unbearable.

Overall, between the three albums these guys have released, their debut effortlessly pisses over this from a great height. It just sounds as though they've lost that early fire to really make sick, eerie Death Metal. However, this still serves its purpose as a fairly decent (if not slightly too sanitary for my liking) Death Metal album.