Amon – Liar In Wait

Any death metal fan would remember that Deicide started under the name of Amon. This is Amon after the Deicide in year 2012. The Hoffman brothers after they were kicked out of Deicide and remained in silence for some years are back with the first Deicide’s name. So what could we expect from them?

This album here is how Deicide would sound like if those two won’t leave the band. It is another typical death metal album from Tampa Florida. But this is not Deicide, this is Amon. After three years in silence and in 2007 the Amon was resurrected by Brian and Eric Hoffman. And finally we can listen to their work.
The overall result is a mix of Deicide’s guitar work from the early days and the growing maturity of those two talented guitarists. You can distinguish their trademark playing with ease, yet their evolution on the composition is clear. This is definitely a great comeback and a revenge for them. The aftertaste of “Liar n Wait” is a sweet one for sure. As I referred above the guitar work are similar to their work in “Legion” or “Deicide”. Still the composition and the orchestration are very mature and listening to the songs is an easy going procedure. Do not expect easy going riffs, this material is rough and extremely technical although it is an easy listening (for the death metal fans). “Liar In Wait” is a guitarist’s garden of Eden. The melodies are there as well as and the fast death metal riffs. The groove is also here and it is welcome as well as some catchy rhythms. Their solos in conclusion are as always crazy and technical.
The other two musicians that integrated in the line-up of Amon performed in high rate to complete the excellent work. The vocals of the bassist Jechael are in the right tone for this kind of music and his high pitched screams fill the right spots, so they do not get tiring. The singing is another instrument and goes on with the groove admirably.

The drumming have a great natural sound without the triggering makes them impossible to listen to. The ideas for the drums are simple straight forward and the playing of Mike Petrak is perfect. In addition the sound of the drums does not overshadow the other instruments. By that I mean that the production and the engineering are excellent especially for an independent album. The only black spot of the production is the buried bass. For once more in a death metal CD the bass is not listenable and you will not hear it anywhere.

In whole the CD is really good and it is recommended for every death metal fan. The only highlights I could stand out are the same titled track, “Spat Forth From The Darkness” – with its crazy and fast guitar melodies – and “Semblance Of Man”. The last one being the only song that you could, without a great effort, listen to the bass. Well the Beast – as Eric Hoffman says – is released and it is here to stay. This is Amon and “Liar In Wait” is here to haunt your soul.