Formed in the mid 90's Burden Of Grief have been one of Germany's most respected death metal outfits for well over fifteen years now. However, back in 2000 when they issued their first full length release entitled Haunting Requiems the band was still relatively unknown outside of their home country, and only had a couple of demos to their credit. In fact Haunting Requiems wasn't a proper first album in that it collected together two EP releases, Eternal Solar Eclipse from 1999 and Above Twilight Wings from 1997. This Metal Mind remaster once again brings this impressive collection back into circulation and includes four of the bands earliest recordings from their 1996 My Blood demo tape as an added bonus.
One of the main things that immediately stand about this release is that despite the rather thin sounding production job, these five young musicians still managed to assemble an impressive bunch of scorching, melodic death metal. Although the growling, high pitched vocals of Mike Huhmann are pretty much standard fare, the twin interlocking guitar harmonies laid down by Oliver Eikenberg and Philipp Hanfland on songs like "Eternal Solar Eclipse" and "Days Of Anguish" certainly demonstrates their maturity as both musicians and songwriters. While a large majority of these songs do rely on a considerable amount of blast beats and super fast tempos to get their point across, the band also changes things up quite frequently as well by slipping the odd atmospheric passage into the mix to keep things fresh.
Over the course of the next three albums Burden Of Grief would go on to further refine their sound and more importantly improve their production qualities as well. However, that being said Haunting Requiems does do a mighty fine job of documenting their first steps towards becoming legitimate death metal contenders.
Track Listing
1) Smashed To Pieces
2) Paradox Reality
3) Deliverance
4) Eternal Solar Eclipse
5) A Duet Of Thoughts
6) Prowler
7) My Beauty's Embrace
8) In The Name Of My Blood
9) Days Of Anguish
10) Immense Infinity
11) Gedankenwelt
12) In The Name Of My Blood (Demo Bonus Track)
13) A Duet Of Thoughts (Demo Bonus Track)
14) Days Of Anguish (Demo Bonus Track)
15) Immense Infinity (Demo Bonus Track)
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