Apophis: I am Your Blindness Review

This is a very short six song album. Apophis plays a sort of melodic death metal that is far closer to real death metal than the Gothenburg scene. They meld influences from early 1990's Swedish death metal and mid 1980's German thrash into a sound that is raw, powerful, and aggressive, but that is still incredibly infectious and catchy. The band is unknown for the most part and incredibly underrated. There are not many bands out there that can match the combination of power and infectiousness that Apophis reaches. It's unfortunate because this band is having record label troubles, which is why this release from 2005 is their last one to date. This band deserves to be heard.

The first track is kind of a throwaway symphonic intro track but it builds into the powerful opening riff of "Choirs of Bitterness". And just like that, the intensity never wavers the rest of the way through the album. The riffs come crashing in along with the blasting drums and the gruff death metal vocals.

The music is heavy, yet melodic at the same time with lead guitar lines weaving in and out of the crashing drum and bass rhythms. Guitar solos shine through in darker moments in the music and add even more melodic touches. There are very occasional uses of keyboards to add an additional flourish near the end of songs or when the moment calls for it.

The vocals retain their gruffness throughout the album, with the exception of some spoken lines in German in “Extinct Life” going back and forth with the main vocals. They are occasionally layered at points where the band wants a little extra emphasis. Once in awhile, the vocalists speaks, using the same vocal style, giving the moment a little extra demonic push. The vocals do get a little redundant over time, but this is not a problem on such a short album.

“Welcome to My World” is the highlight of the album with melodic guitar lines played over the top of blast beats from the drummer in several places throughout the song which are incredibly infectious. The guitar solo blazes near the end of the song leading into a final breakdown before the fadeaway.

“That’s Why I’ve Killed You” is another highlight. It starts out a little slower but after the first couple of verses kicks up the tempo and rolls through the rest of the song with a groove that Pantera would be jealous of.

Apophis possesses an amazing ability to write a truly catchy death metal song. Bands with that ability should be more popular. This is a very good, short melodic death metal album and it is highly recommended to anyone interested in melody but still wanting death metal.