JUDGEMENT DAY „March Of The Apokalypse”

Judgement Day is an old school Death Metal band that has been operating on the margins of the Dutch underground since about 1988. They have been plagued by constant line-up changes and issues with record labels that stood in the way of their development. Despite this they have managed to create quite an impressive output up until now: 3 demos, 1 split,1 full length ‘Circumcision of the Martyr’ 1995 and 1 7”. Recently they have released this MCD using private means.

So what kind of music do these gentlemen make? Well, it’s a mix of old school thrashy death metal meets ‘modern’ Cannibal Corpse influences. This interesting combo means that the songs rip through you at a blistering pace and deliver a solid punch at the same time. Despite the record being released and produced entirely using private means it never comes across as amateuristic and in view of some recent disappointing releases of other Dutch death metal bands, I am surprised that the likes of Sinister still enjoy label support while Judgement Day doesn’t. Of course due to obvious studio limitations the sound does come across as a little bit ‘flat’ and dry occasionally but the enthusiasm with which they pull it all of makes up for that.

As I have mentioned before they manage to successfully blend the old and modern aspects of death metal without it ever sounding sludgy and blurry as some releases by Nile, Decapitated and the likes occasionally tend to do.

Do yourself a favor and check out their website (http://www.judgementday.nl) where you can download some samples. The MCD is limited to 500 copies but I believe that there are still some left so pick one up now and support the underground!

This record deserves a lot of bonus for managing to pull off a very sophisticated and professional sounding result without the access to professional means and at the same time it is a good example that the death metal scene still has some things on offer that haven’t been entirely rehashed over and over.

note: 7/10