Receiving this promo really thrilled me in the beginning. Having recognized Eric Neyra's artwork on the cover, an old-school line art painting of blasphemy all demons and inverted crosses, and knowing the average quality of From Beyond releases (really one of my favourite labels today, unforgettable the releases of Pentagram [from Chile, not the gay ones], Necro Schizma, Anal Vomit or Morbosidad), I was expecting a fucking holocaust of chains, gas masks, leather, blood, sweat and spikes. I already knew the band from their split with Impiety but really I couldn’t call to mind much about them musick, and that should have been a nasty hint that something was wrong... and indeed it was. Surrender of Divinity is dramatically average. The worst of this disc is those terrible screeching vocals that damn ruin all the rest, they sometimes have that strange effect that Tom Warrior used in the old Hellhammer, but amidst this I can0t really see its use. The music is fast, no bitching on this. I admit the drumming is not static either, and the guitar work is not just boring chord progression as in the gay “Norwegian” black style. There is wasted potential because the intentions are surely of writing some savage hymns. However the thing has no chemistry at all. I can’t dare to advance comparisons because I am just not much into this stuff and I tend to delete it after one listen, it just doesn’t catch. Maybe a better vocalist, a slightly rougher production, anything that can add some spice to this dullness can raise its worth. No good this time, no good….
The booklet is nice, much on the line of the other From Beyond releases, its elements professionally combined, good print, a sober but effective work.The booklet is a thick 8 page thing with blood red old-school frames and nice choice of fonts.
I have heard this record a fourth time now but still can’t find good things about it, some bestial bursts do exist but I won’t waste a cent on this stuff. I feel like having listened to this stuff a million times, and what’s worse, I don’t usually care much for innovation as far as there’s beastly brutality, dismal blasphemy or savage fierceness. This is a badly missed chance. Gay.

 

Tracks (66): 1 - Manifest Blasphemy 2 - Consecration of the Heathen Messiah 3 - Deglorification of the Dogs 4 - (Tale I) Satanic Storm 5 - (Tale II) Rise of the Possessed Ones 6 - (Tale III) The Apocalyptic Catharsis 7-65 [empty space] 66 – hidden track. There’s surely a cover of a famous band I have listened a thousand times but I cannot remember which one…