Every one of us has some of those secrets we keep to ourselves. There is some pleasure to the fact you know something special no one else does. I treat Swedish death metallers Kaamos this way. If you are interested in the story about how I stumbled over them in the first place, follow a review link of their self-titled 2002 album below. And one fine album that was – brutal, dark, mystic and blasphemous at the same time. Thus, I was more than happy when Kaamos second full-length Lucifer Rising ended up on my desk.

Their line-up unchanged Kaamos took three years between two albums instead further advancing their underground cult status by mostly doing live performances in Europe. When the time came, however, Lucifer Rising was born.

Ten evil incantations of the album open up with Black Revelation. Fine opener, this song varies tempos from barbaric rumbling to militaristic march, bringing a fair dose of melody, mostly in the form of the leads, to combine with the raw and dry sound of classic Stockholm death metal riffs. The suit is pretty much followed on Gnosticon, Inaugurating Evil and Chthonic – fast, blast driven death metal broken down for a lead consisting of a series of distorted chords (Gnosticon) or ending in a Hellish “atmoshperics” Kaamos way (Chthonic). There is no question Lucifer Rising is one brutal death metal slab, it peels your skin off with riffery, but it does not come across with as much individuality as the self-titled debut did a couple of years ago.

I long for dark taunting attitude of Theriomorphic Pandaemonium, broodiness of Dark Void and triumphant sacrilegious swagger of the title track. I want for these moments not to be exactly that, moments. I don’t want Kaamos to hide behind their influences of early Dismember and Grave, I want them to come out angry and blasphemous, yet groovy and melodic, just like Blood Chaos and Curse of Aeons were. I have no idea who produced Lucifer Rising, but legendary Messiah Marcolin assisted the band previously. Could it be because of his stimulus the band had more of grinding doom moments Kaamos executes so well? On Lucifer Rising I had to wait until 8th track Mysterious Reversion to hear that sound. Sandwiched around a faster middle, doomy death metal on Mysterious Reversion symbolizes the depth of Hell Lucifer calls home. Another great track is the instrumental closer Ascent which is named almost intentionally in reverse of what it should be. Descent, with the camelback tempo of the lead guitar, would have been a much proper title.

In places self-titled debut reminded of Amon Amarth, but Lucifer Rising does so much less. Sweep picking tremolo guitar is used only sparingly (Sacrament in Red) and Karl’s vocals have become more guttural and unintelligible, bordering on Cannibal Corpse. Berno Studios provides a strong and powerful bottom end, drumming is tight and technical, but snare sound is at times a little plastic.

Coupling old Stockholm death metal with darker attitude and evil themes was apparently the Kaamos goal on Lucifer Rising. Solid and brutal, this album lacks those chants, bells and grooves that made Kaamos stand on its own. Without these features and a lack of a truly flagship track Lucifer Rising is good, but not great. This is still a fine piece of vicious music which could have been more.