Friday 29th March 2024,
The Black Planet

DAMNATION PLAN – Reality Illusion

“Reality Illusion” is the second full length album from the Finnish band Damnation Plan. They play what can be categorised as progressive melodic death metal, and their first full length “The Wakening” was release in 2013 via Coroner Records.

Their newest effort, “Reality Illusion”, was released by Inverse records on March 10, 2017. The album comprises a total of 12 tracks, making a total of ~56 minutes of high quality music.

As in their previous album, they start with a “Intro” track. A short one minute of pure melody that builds the mood and expectations for the following tracks.

“Beyond These Walls” contrasts from the first second with the melodic intro, starting fast and loud filled with Tommy’s harsh and clean vocals intercalated with fast riffs and bold drums. Already showing the versatility of the band, this song choirs, mainly clean vocals, perfectly merge into the heavy sound of the track. A very complete and heavy song with several progressive elements and sudden change in melody that will for sure catch your attention.

“Rulers of Thruth”, “Rise of the messenger” and “Blinded Faith” follow the same formula as the first song complemented with particularly strong messages in their lyrics. Highlighting, that perhaps due the choir section, “Rise of the messenger” might be the most catchy song of the album, getting into your head immediately after the first listening.

“The Empowerment” is a fully instrumental track that pops out half way through the album, kind of giving the listener a break to rest from the heaviness of the previous tracks. Continuing in the same mellow tone into the following track and the ballad of the album “Maze of Despair”.

“Iron curtains falls” restarts the heavier sonority that continues into the album tittle track “Reality Illusion”, which might be indeed the best example of how complete this band can be. “A Chapter In Greed” and “The Final Destination” close the album with the same discharge of energy exemplified in the previous album tracks.

The final and “bonus” track is a very special cover to Ronnie James Dio’s classic “Do not Talk To Strangers” where they managed to integrate the bands signature sound while keeping the original vocals intensity.

Overall a well planned sequence of songs that build a history that should be listened from beginning to end to fully appreciate this album. They demonstrated once again their ability to perfectly merge heavy and atmospheric elements, being the perfect example how the harsh and mellow vocals were merged or alternate in most of the song.

The catchy melodies and all the rhythm changes characteristic of the progressive genre will entice you to listen to this album more than once. Demonstrating a perfect execution this is a very well accomplished album, that will, not only, not disappoint their fans as expand their exposure amongst the heavy metal scene followers.

9 / 10

 

 

Review by Elsa Marques
Managing Editor : Elsa Marques / Rita Limede

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About The Author

Adopted the role of the zine Finnish emissary, and since my addition to the roster, I have been juggling the tasks of Editor-in-chief, Promoter and Manager of the zine social media pages. As part of the permanent staff of the zine, album reviews, video and written interviews, covering live shows (text, video and photography) have been also a strong contribution to the zine work. Besides the zine "hobbies" I am also a origami, music and travel enthusiastic. Academic background: Biology degree from the University of Coimbra (Portugal); Master of Science in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the Center of Neurosciences & Faculty of Science and Technology (Portugal); PhD degree from the Medical Faculty, University of Helsinki (Finland).

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