With so many external influences affecting modern Death Metal these days, it is increasingly hard to find bands that just play Death Metal. No Black Metal, no Thrash, no Core; it’s strange that a band playing just Death Metal can sound more original than most other bands in the genre. Poland’s Trauma is one such band in question, and much like Blood Red Throne we have very catchy and crushing Death Metal with all the right elements of blasts, mosh pit inducing double bass, and just about everything that originally made bands like Death, Morbid Angel, Monstrosity, and Obituary so popular in the first place.

Though not their first release (it’s actually their fourth), Trauma probably aren’t as well known world-wide as they should be, and thus to many people, Imperfect Like A God will be their first introduction to the band. There isn’t a whole lot to say when describing the sound of Trauma because if you’ve listened to the pure Death Metal CD’s of the late 80’s to the mid 90’s you already know what you’re going to get. I would say this band is most similar to the Monstrosity and mid-period Morbid Angel school of Death Metal from a riff and structure stand point, as the same type of hypnotic and interesting riffing is present. Of course, like any self-respecting Death Metal band there is pure chaos as well with a lot of speed and overall brutality in the classic Leprosy style, though, not the all-too-common Grindcore style. The vocals are typical but well performed. Once again, like classic Death Metal the vocal timing and slightly varying tones of mid-range and deeper growls are actually thought-out and not just thrown together. This lends itself to the catchiness of the music, as the vocals never take away from any particular section and only add to the enjoyment of the CD, especially through the use of multiple vocal tracks (just like older Deicide).

What makes Imperfect Like A God work is its attention to detail. That’s not to say that this release is overly technical or that it contains layer upon layer of compositional genius, but instead it just punishes the listener with one quality riff after another coupled with strong vocals, excellent leads, and precise drumming. There are very, very few sections that you wish would just end so that you can hear the “good” riff. Thus, the overall consistency and quality is quite high throughout the CD. Imperfect Like A God is the type of Death Metal CD you can listen to multiple times without boredom setting in and to me that says that almost every song received a lot of attention during the song writing process. Granted, it is not as classic as the late 80’s to mid 90’s releases I alluded to, nor is it genre expanding but it doesn’t have to be. What Trauma try to do they do extremely successfully and I highly recommend this release to Death Metal fans looking for something with no frills and a healthy dose of memorable and nostalgic riffs backed up by necking breaking rhythms.