Band: Livarkahil
Title: Signs Of Decay
Label: Listenable Records
Distribution: Suburban
Release date: September 9th 2011
Review: CD

Livarkahil are a French Death combo, formed about five years ago in the city of Paris. After a first demo (No Cure For The Fools) and a debut full length debut (First Act Of Violence) released almost three years ago, the band went on tour in Europe, and especially France and some neighbours (Switzerland, Belgium) did welcome them with open arms.

Recently Livarkahil recorded their sophomore album, produced by HK and BST, whom we do know from masterly acts like The Order Of Apollyon, Aosoth, VI etc., and which got mixed and mastered at one of Poland’s best-known and most professional studios, Hertz. And especially the latter (but the collaboration with both French Black / Death-musicians / colleagues as well, of course) has been of ignorable and undeniable influence on Livarkahil’s sound.
First Act Of Violence, the band’s debut, was clearly inspired by Post-Present Death Metal acts like Behemoth, Trauma or (much too underestimated) Yattering, and Signs Of Decay follows the same direction. Why not? The influence of HK and BST cannot be ignored either. Some of the bands they work or worked with, both as permanent or session member, could have inspired the conceptual song writing on Signs Of Decay as well. Aborted or The Order Of Apollyon (both of them, by the way, but isn’t but a silly coincidence and therefore just additionally interesting information for freaks like undersigned, also currently or formerly under contract with Listenable) are two names that come to mind, for your information. The pretty short (one and a half minute) bombastic intro (all right, not that original, yet still…) sets the ideal t(hr)one for forty six minutes of technically high-levelled and grimly-obscured Death Metal with a timeless touch of both primitivism and progression. From a far distance one might notice some modest links to Doom-Death, Hardcore, Post-Black and Thrash Metal, going for both fast and slower excerpts. And even though the main part stands miles (or kilometres, of you want to) away from any original point of view, Livarkahil do impress with a handful of unexpected twists or additions.

The lyrical concept is a complaint against monotheism. Most of the ‘most popular’ religions rule with autocratic and dictatorial principles, intolerant and based on theories of fear and blind obeisance. Not that original either, yet mostly interesting indeed.

For fans of: Behemoth for sure, as well as, for example, Zyklon, The Deviant, Gojira, Yattering, Benighted or Aborted.

87/100

Ivan Tibos.