With just a few tracks to their rather unsnappy name, duo Requiem For Oblivion are nonetheless shaping up to be a fine addition to the Prog Metal landscape. They have an original sound that takes influences from several sources, notably the acoustic dramatics of Agalloch and the heavy, crushing power of Opeth, but the band doesn't really sound like either of those after a while, being closer to a mixture of Alice In Chains and Cynic - the depressive pound of the former and the speedy technicality of the latter. It's hard to really sum the band up at all - they're truly out-there and original, and truth be told feel rather messy at times, like they've tried to fit too many ideas together at once without quite knowing what they want the outcome to be, or without fitting the ideas into conventional song structures.

Still, what the band do, they do damn well. The acoustic atmospherics of opener Sorrow's Eve soon switches to heavy dramatics on the suitably-titled Ominous, snarls and backing clean vocals riding over a mixture of diverse riffs and Jazzy melodies that never stand still. It's a great sound for the band, held back a little by the poor production, but you'll probably be well and truly in love by the time you've got to the excellent The Release, opening with acoustic guitars before jumping into a complex post-sludge morass, riffing and dreamy clean vocals that could have come from a particularly drug-fuelled Stoner band. I've read criticisms of the band's vocals elsewhere, but I really can't hear anything that wouldn't be improved by the natural leap from demo to EP or full-length-level quality. Illuminata closes the demo, taking a slightly quieter and more nervous sound than the tracks before.

All in all, there's a great deal of promise shown here, and given that this is just a demo Requiem For Oblivion seem sure to impress even more in the future. You can hear all the tracks from this demo on the band's MySpace, link below.