Cholera - Prophecies of Annihilation (2011)

The Ottawa, Canada duo of Raphael Weinroth-Brown and Matthew Buller impressed me greatly last year with their debut EP, 'Enslaved Humanity' and here in 2011 they return with their full-length album, 'Prophecies of Annihilation.'

Although consisting of the two songs from Enslaved Humanity, Prophecies also adds three additional songs, which brings the total time to about an hours worth of music. In case you didn't read my previous review what you can expect from these guys is progressive death metal with heavily technical riff and solo guitar work, a crushing drum performance, progressive-ish and (somewhat sounding) black metal style symphonic synths, both middle eastern and classical music leanings and both massively growled and cleanly sung vocals. Oh, and did I mention that they are still teenagers? Yep, both Raphael and Matthew were between the ages of 18-19 when this beast was recorded in 2009/10 and considering the technical ability and the diversity I'd say these guys have quite a bright future ahead of them.

The album opens with the two songs from Enslaved Humanity and although they are killer will move onto the third song, 'The Lost Traveler,' which clocks in for eighteen and a half minutes worth of awesomeness. Its really something how the mood of this song progresses throughout its duration since at various moments the listener is treated to pummeling head banging progressive death metal while a few other times there's lone piano solos and at other times some catchy middle eastern flourishes or cleanly sung progressive rock-ish parts pop up. It's all very interesting and it works, whereas so many other bands try to be progressive and different and generally just come up with a bunch of nonsense that makes no sense and doesn't work at all.

'Reminiscence' opens with a classically inspired cello solo when before long piano enters the song and soon enough some cleanly sung vocals over both the cello and piano appear. This continues until almost the nine minute mark when the band begins blasting away once again. The final song and title track is largely the same as the previous compositions without anything new being added, but goddamn what a great song to close out this colossal album!

In addition to this album being excellent it also has a superb production job, which allows all the instruments plenty of room to breath and come through in the mix. Also I'd have to say the artwork for the album is quite good too!

As you may have guessed though Cholera is unsigned and I'd have to say that's quite a mistake considering the talent on display here, but perhaps if the guys put together a live band and start touring around their home town and the rest of Canada word might start spreading.

In the mean time I'd highly suggest checking out this album if you're into bands like Opeth, Dream Theater, Behemoth or Nile you'll definitely find yourself enjoying this stunning release from Cholera.