Do you like assaulting your ears with violent guitar riffs? Headbanging so hard that your neck hurts? Then this next band may be what you're looking for! Hailing from Australia, Ouroboros is a technical death/thrash outfit that play harder and faster than any band I've reviewed so far this year. Their goal seems to be to bring back the fast guitars and technicality of thrash, but keep the overall atmosphere a bit darker and more in the realm of death metal than most. Glorification Of A Myth is their debut album, although it seems that these guys have been around the Australian death metal scene for the past decade in various other bands. Just from looking at the album cover and booklet, you can see that this is a band more dedicated than most, but the crisp, fresh material that they bring in this 10-track journey of violence is still a welcome surprise. From what I can tell their influences range from the thrash goodness of Destruction and Overkill to Carcass, Entombed, and other death metal greats. The resulting sound is as brutal as it is precise and a feast to the ears for anyone who enjoys hearing a band that really cares about their music.

Black Hole Generator starts off with plenty of speed and thrashy energy. The guitars are very fast, yet still incorporate a bit of groove. The vocals are also basic death metal growls and roars, no real singing to be found here. It's an aggressive, technical song to start off an aggressive album. Lashing Of The Flames wastes no time in kicking the album into high gear and immediately makes me want to get up and headbang. The guitars are simple yet furious in the delivery of hard-hitting, palm-muted riffs. The vocals are once again the roaring growl of frontman Evgeny Linnik. At this point I am hoping that the vocals will get a little wilder as they simply don't add as much as they could to the sound. The acoustic guitar interlude in the second half of the song is a nice touch I think, gives it more of a death metal feeling of foreboding. Animal, Man...Machine keeps this same headbanging, rocking feeling and of course makes use of some very fast guitar work. Sea To Summit is a thrashier, guitar-lead driven song. If there were some real singing here I feel like it could be a modern thrash classic. The guitars are simply off the hook, and for a song that is nearly 6 minutes long it keeps things moving nicely without getting too repetitive. I think Thomas would agree with me that this one song alone is better than anything Exodus has produced in the past 6 years. Disembodied Mind goes back to tech-death style complex guitar work and tempo changes. Reminds me of Gojira a bit. Dissolve reinforces that feeling with very catchy, but also very fast and technically superb, guitar work; lots of layered riffing to create something exciting and listenable. The soloing later in the song is also top notch. At this point in the album I am convinced that these guys will settle for no less than perfection in their music, something I admire quite a lot. Every little guitar run and quick dive-bomb is sharp and precise. This is simply good old meat-and-potatoes technical death metal.

Now that's not to say that this album couldn't have been better. For one thing I would like to hear Linnik do a bit more with his voice if possible; throw something out of the ordinary in there, maybe do some higher pitch stuff. His vocals do fit the music quite well, and the speed at which he performs is admirable, but I also think he could step it up and help provide some contrast to the guitars, which brings me to my next point...the bass. I'm not sure if the production is at fault or what, but I struggled to hear Michael Conti's bass throughout the album. It's not a big deal, the music still sounds great, but it is dominated for the most part by the guitars and drums. Occasionally I would hear a stray bassline during a breakdown or lull in the guitar riffs, but other than that it's lost.

Overall this is a solid debut release, especially in a genre where it can be difficult to find a foothold. I rarely hear debut albums that display such precision and attention to detail. These guys simply do not let up for nearly an hour of brutal, hyperspeed metal. Anyone who considers themselves a fan of death metal or the most violent side of thrash should pick this up. I would love to see these guys live, so I hope that their hard work pays off and they are able to do some worldwide touring. Rock!