ROTHADAS (Hun) – ‘Kopar Hant… Az Alvilag Fele’ LP

Here, ROTHADÁS erect an eerily shimmering monument of slimy, oft-doomy DEATH METAL: for maniacs, by maniacs, young and old and everyone in between. Armed with an absolutely crushing production, the band’s first full-length betrays an eternal wisdom by maximizing the basics as well as nodding to various eras and locales of death metal but only subtly – immersion rather than extraction, and addition by subtraction, tastefully so in both regards. As each of these five lumbering/lunging hulks of dread-inducing sound effortlessly morph into myriad shapes, each one as ghastly and grotesque as the last, it slowly begins to dawn on the listener than Kopár hant… az alvilág felé retains a runtime of 44 minutes: truly, an experience that is EPIC – as ever, tastefully and subtly so – rather “epic” in shameless overstatement. Further, ROTHADÁS’ native Hungarian helps lend another sublime layer of the unique to what is arguably the year’s best dark-horse death metal recording…recognize or regret!