Dark Sermon – “In Tongues”

If you’re from Florida and you trade in crushing blast-beats, vocals that sound like they’re dragged up from the swamps, and riffs that make your fingers bleed, then you’ve already ticked off most of the requirements needed to call yourself a bona fide death metal band. You see, if you’re of a certain age then you’ll be well aware that, Florida, along with Sweden, was responsible for some of the most influential death metal bands of all time. Thankfully, the importance of those bands hasn’t faded over time, especially with bands like Dark Sermon adding a modern twist to the face-stoving heaviness of the Florida death metal sound.

Unsurprisingly then, In Tongues sits comfortably alongside anything put out by modern death metal titans like Job For A Cowboy and The Black Dahlia Murder. While that does mean there is nothing particularly new contained within the sounds of In Tongues, there are plenty of pit-inspired blasts and stack loads of crunchy, mosh-inducing riffs to keep those of you with weary ears interested. Thankfully, while there is plenty to give your ears a right royal going over, Dark Sermon sit nicely on the right side of the melodic fence to make sure that you’re treated to some impressive tunes. Tunes like “The Scales Of Justice”, tracks which, while they certainly don’t rewrite the modern death metal rulebook, are certainly very faithful to the blueprint laid out by bands who’ve done this sort of thing before them.

A top grade production job only goes to enhance what is already an album bristling with positive points. So, if you’re happy listening to something that may not offer anything new, but does it with the sort of brazen confidence that makes for a fairly enjoyable listen, then In Tongues will do the job for you.

Track Listing:

01. The Sheperd’s Staff
02. Imperfect Contrition
03. Hounds
04. The Scales Of Justice
05. Cursed
06. Forfeit I – The Crooked Quill
07. Forfeit II – Worn Thin
08. The Tree Of New Life
09. Carcass
10. Testament
11. In Tongues

Run Time: 43:58
Release Date: April 12, 2013

Check out the song “Imperfect Contrition”